ABSTRACT
The study was designed to
ascertain the strategies for climate change adaptation among rural households
in Imo State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study ascertained the respondents’
level of awareness on climate change, ascertained their perceived causes of climate
change, identified and documented the effective local adaptation strategies to
climate change, and finally identified factors that militate against effective
adaptation to climate change in the study area. All the rural households in the
state constituted the population for the study. A total of 108 respondents,
made up of 12 household heads selected from each of the nine villages
purposively selected for the study were used. Data were collected using
semi-structured questionnaires. Percentage distribution, mean statistic,
charts, and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. The major findings
showed that majority (78.3%) of the respondents were aware of climate change.
It further showed that a greater proportion, (about 41%) of the respondents
know very little about climate change. Most of the respondents, (about 62%)
were aware of climate change through personal experience and observation.
Further, most of the respondents (47.7%) described climate change as persistent
short rainfall duration. About 71% of the respondents agreed that climate
change had effect on agriculture, while about 49% of the respondents perceived
that major effect of climate change on agriculture was declining crop yield.
Some percentages (about 18.0%) of the respondents perceived women as the most
vulnerable to climate change. The respondents perceived gas flaring (M= 2.07),
violation of local customs (M = 2.01) and natural phenomena (M = 2.00) as the
causes of climate change in the study area. Furthermore, they perceived growing
of drought-resistant crop varieties (M = 1.14), use of pest/disease resistant
crop varieties (M = 1.06), roof water harvesting (M = 1.00), sinking of more
wells (M = 1.06), ground water harvesting (M = 1.07), planting deeper into the
soil to avoid heat stress (M = 1.10), increased weeding (M = 1.29), changing of
planting dates (M = 1.05), and changing timing of land preparation (M = 1.01)
as effective adaptation strategies to climate change in the study area.
Perceived constraints to effective adaptation to climate change in the study
area were limited access to improved crop varieties (M= 1.95), high cost of
farm labour (M= 1.80), inadequate financial resources to adapt (M= 1.80), high
cost of diversification of enterprise (M=1.78), lack of irrigation schemes (M =
1.66), high cost of constructing dams (M = 1.58), limited access to improved
livestock breeds (M = 1.57), limited availability of land (M = 1.53), high cost
of land (M = 1.53), poor extension service (M = 1.52) and lack of government
policy on adaptation (M= 1.50). However, the constraints were grouped into:
financial constraints with high cost of diversification of enterprise (0.85),
inadequate financial resources to adapt (0.83), high cost of labour (0.83),
high cost of improved crop varieties (0.78) and poor extension service (0.66)
as factors that loaded under it; government failures with poor land ownership
system (0.81), low income level (0.80), use of zero tillage encourages weed
growth, pest and disease attack (0.73) and poor responses to crises related to
climate change (0.67) and limited land availability (0.61) as factors loading
under it; and finally technical constraints with lack of access to weather
forecast (0.70), planting before the rains result to crop failure (0.68) and inadequate
knowledge on how to cope (0.65) as factors loading under it. The study
concluded that as a result of the little knowledge of the respondents on
climate change owing to their reliance on personal observation and experience
as major sources of information on climate change, the extension agency and
mass media should be fully used in the dissemination of information on climate
change in the rural areas.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
information
Climate change according to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report of 2007 is already
happening and represents one of the greatest threats facing the earth. The
warming of the earth is now evident from air and ocean temperatures, widespread
melting of ice and snow and the rising global mean sea level. It reflects
abnormal variations in the earth’s climate and subsequent effects on parts of
the earth such as ice caps over durations ranging from decades to millions of
years. In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy,
climate change usually reflects or refers to changes in the climate (Kolbert,
2006). According to Seiz and Foppa (2007), climate change is the result of many
factors including the dynamic processes of the earth itself, external forces
including variations in sunlight intensity and more recently human activities
or anthropogenic factors. Of major concern in anthropogenic factors is the
increase in the carbon dioxide (CO2) level due to emissions from
fossil fuels combustion followed by aerosols, cement manufacture, ozone
layer depletion, animal agriculture and deforestation (Steinfeld, 2006).
Climate change hazards mostly
affect the poor, destroying homes and livelihoods and affecting participation
in development process itself. In both developed and developing societies,
these hazards lead to food and water shortages and disease outbreaks (Tjaronda,
2007) among other effects/impacts. The poor are heavily dependent on the
ecosystem services and therefore most severely affected by deteriorating
environmental conditions. While climate change is not the only threat to
natural resources flow, it will affect the viability of livelihoods unless
effective measures are taken to protect and diversify them through adaptation
and other strategies (Steinfeld, 2006).
Local communities have been
observed to be the most vulnerable to climate change impacts. According to
Brooks (2008) such changes that heighten the vulnerability of the local people include
desertification, coastal erosion, deforestation, loss of forest quality, sea
level rise, woodland degradation, reduced fresh water availability, coral
bleaching, the spread of malaria and dengue fever and impacts on food security.
Research has shown that one-third of the Nigerian territory is under siege by
the expanding frontiers of the Sahara desert with whole villages in the north
disappearing under sand dunes, turning the affected villagers into refugees in
their own lands (Building Nigeria’s Response to Climate Change, BNRCC, 2008).
In the South, the Atlantic Ocean is threatening coastal cities including
Nigeria’s financial and industrial hub, Lagos and the Niger Delta, while
increased storms and floods have dissipated agriculture, infrastructure and
human habitat in the East (Eze, 2008).
According to Offor (2008),
rainfall in the Sahel has been declining since the 1960s. The result has been
loss of farmlands, and conflicts between herdsmen and farmers over land
resource; many different communities including farmers, fishermen and herdsmen
are now confronted with difficulties arising from climate changes; people’s
livelihoods are being harmed and people who are already poor are becoming even
more impoverished; climate refugees are being created as the changes make some
lands unliveable and affect water supplies (Eze, 2008). The exploitation of gas
and oil in the Niger Delta area has also exposed communities to environmental
and land pollution (Offor, 2008).
According to Kitano (2002) adaptation
is the process of responding or adjusting to actual and potential impacts of
changing climate conditions in ways that moderate harm or take advantage of any
positive opportunities that climate may afford. It includes policies and
measures to reduce....
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Item Type: Postgraduate Material | Attribute: 114 pages | Chapters: 1-5
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