Climate Change and Food Security in Smallholder Farming Households of Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study explores the connection between food security and climate change adaptation measures strategies in Kogi State, Nigeria. Primary data were generated through structured questionnaires and interviews. Food insecurity is endemic among the households evidenced by stress over food flows, dietary quality and food sufficiency. The traditional determinants of food security such as age of farmer, years of farm experience, farm size, access to credit and extension services all had their hypothesized signs and were significant. The most used methods for adapting to climate change are crop diversification, crop rotation, mixed farming, and cultivation of flood- and drought-resistant crops. The dominant strategies adopted by the households for managing climate change-induced food crisis included changing household tasks to stimulate food production and altering food consumption habits. To mitigate the impact of climate shocks and build resilience for small farmers, deliberate governmental actions are required to link them effectively to the market, attenuate transaction costs, manage price volatilities and ramp up farm-level extension services and input delivery systems. The role of government in accelerating the pace of transformational adaptation includes the conduct of adequate and long-term adaptation planning, fostering of multisectoral synergies and multi-stakeholder collaborations to determine adaptation pathways and options, enabling of the adaptation process by providing technical and financial support, indemnifying small-scale farmers from losses for failed transformative adaptation trials and investing in forecasting and early warning systems and information and knowledge tools to apprise farmers with current and cutting edge knowledge of transformative adaptation alternatives. Political and administrative leadership for adaptation response should also enable the interplay of adaptation approaches and promote resourcefulness, imagination and innovation. It should also have the capacity to disseminate the adaptation program, build trust, and drive implementation.