Farmers’ Knowledge and Perception of Climate Change Impact on Crop Production in Akinyele Local Government Area, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Article history: Received Received in revised form Accepted Available online The vicissitudes of climatic conditions in Nigeria negatively impact agricultural production. Sustainability of agricultural production depends largely on farmers’ ability to make decisions based on their level of knowledge and information available to them. This paper reports farmers’ knowledge and perception of climate change on crop production in Akinyele Local Government Area, Southwestern Nigeria. Stratified random sampling method was employed for the study. Data obtained through administration of structured questionnaire on local residents were analyzed using descriptive and chi-square (χ2) statistics at α0.05. Secondary data were also obtained on some climatic variables and crop production in the study area. Modal age among the respondents’ (31.1%) was between 5060years, 78.9% were males and 95.6% were married. Although 83.3% of them perceived their knowledge level on climate change as good, only 42.2% perceived reduced rainfall as impact of climate change. However, 70.0% perceived change in seasonal rainfall pattern as indicator of climate change while 97.8% believed that humans are not responsible for the observed climate change. But, respondents’ fingered deforestation (41.1%), bush burning (27.8%) and vehicular emissions’ (11.1%) as agents of climate change. Further, respondents’ age impacted their knowledge on climate change (χ2 = 33.85; df = 18) and their perceptions of climate change (χ2 = 27.77; df = 12) and its effect (χ2 = 46.69; df = 24). Secondary information corroborated famers’ perception of climate vagaries, most noticeably, the rainfall pattern. Therefore, farmers’ knowledge and perception of micro climate indices are important inputs in the formulation of sustainable food production policy.