FACTORS INFLUENCING CHOICE OF COPING STRATEGIES AMONG RURAL FARMERS IN OKUNLAND, KOGI STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This study examined the factors that influenced the choice of coping strategies to climate change among rural farmers in Okun Area of Kogi State, Nigeria. A total of one hundred and fifty copies of questionnaire were randomly administered on the respondents through a multi-stage random sampling technique. But only one hundred and forty-six (146) copies were retrieved and used for the analysis Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the analyses. The descriptive statistics used were frequency tables, percentages and mean, while the inferential statistic used was Multinomial Logistic regression. The results indicate that 72.60% of the respondents were male while 27.40% were female. It was discovered that 30.82% of the farmers chose fertilizer application as a measure to cope with the impact of climate change while 11.64% engaged in the planting of cover crops as a measure to cope with the changing climate. The result of the multinomial logistic regression model showed educational status, farming experience, access to credit, access to extension services, farm size, farm and non-farm incomes as well as access to climate information were among the factors that influenced farmers’ choice of coping strategies to climate change at 95% confidence interval.