Planning in sustainable development is believed to be an important element in allowing higher education institutions to set their goals and to commit themselves towards undertaking concrete actions and measures at all levels in order to implement sustainability. Yet, there is a paucity of research which have looked at the extent to which planning can support institutions of higher education to assess their performances and to determine whether the set aims are being met. This research gap needs to be met so as to allow a better understanding of how planning can help to promote the integration of the three components of sustainable development-economic development, social development and environmental protection in higher education. This paper, an attempt to address this perceived research need, explores the challenges for planning the sustainable development in higher education, also outlining the potentials lessons learned, that can assist in improving Education for Sustainable Development efforts in Higher Education Institutions.

Urban food insecurity and poverty are fast becoming major problems in the developing world. Urban agriculture has also been variously presented as one of the options for tackling this problem. But is urban agriculture sustainable, given that only the city poor are involved? This paper presents a comparison of output and use of purchased inputs between the rural and urban farmers in Ohafia, southeast Nigeria. Although farm sizes were larger in the rural than in the urban areas, this difference was not statistically significant, apparently because many farmers in the urban areas also purchased farmland in the rural areas. The uses of all the purchased inputs except hired labour were significantly higher in the urban than in the rural areas, indicating efforts by urban farmers to retain soil nutrients in the face of continuous cropping. The use of hired labour did not differ in the two locations, mainly because the aged are involved in agriculture everywhere. Output was however significantly lower in the urban than in the rural areas, apparently because farmers in the urban areas are poor and hence undercapitalized to use adequate amounts of purchased inputs to retain soil nutrients. This observation suggests that if urban agriculture is to act as one of the options for tackling urban food insecurity, the urban poor should be sufficiently empowered financially, not only to apply purchased inputs in the right quantities, but also to adopt innovations in their farming businesses.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the extent of agricultural losses incurred by the farm households due to flood; to assess the farm households gender-based vulnerability to flood; to identify the coping strategies used by them; and to estimate factors that drive the choice of these coping strategies. Design/methodology/approach – Using both purposive and simple random sampling techniques, the paper selected 120 farm households from the flood prone areas of the state, using the list of the State Agricultural Development Project (ADP) contact farmers as a sampling frame. Data for the paper were collected using a set of structured and pre-tested questionnaire. The information collected included the extent of agricultural losses incurred by the farm households, farm household’s level of asset base, flood coping strategies adopted by the farmers and so on. The data were collected in August 2013. Findings – More than 70 per cent of the farmers’ farmlands were affected by flood, resulting in more than 80 per cent of their staple crops (cassava, rice, yam, maize and vegetables) and livestock (sheep/goat and chicken) being lost. Women were generally more vulnerable than men to the effect of flood. Selling of assets, borrowing of loans to diversify the means of livelihood, short-term migration, support from social network, compensation of losses from National and/or State Emergency Management Agencies, planting of agro-forestry trees, change of date of planting, land terracing, construction of drainages, cover cropping and making of ridges across slop constituted the flood coping strategies of the farmers. On the factors influencing the choice of these coping strategies, the level of education of the household head, frequency of extension visits in a year and tenure security status were positively and significantly related with land and crop management strategies, such as planting of agro-forestry trees, planting of cover crops and construction of drainages across farmland. Age, access to credit, farm size and membership of cooperative societies had negative relationships with selling of assets and short-term migration. In addition, membership of cooperative societies and flood experience were positively and significantly related with institutional measures, such as support from social network and National and State Emergency Management Agencies. These observations underscore the need for training, cooperatives and enhanced farm capacity (credit and farm size) in coping with flood by the farmers. It is recommended that governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should assist the farmers in these regards. Originality/value – Climate change induced flooding has become a developmental issue across the world. As countries continue to be hit by massive flooding, food production also continues to be hit adversely. Nigeria has joined this league because of the rampage flooding across the country in recent times. Anambra State is down stream of both rivers Niger and Benue and, hence, one of the states vulnerable to flooding in Nigeria. Available literature suggests that greater efforts have been made to quantify the economic implications of flooding on agriculture and the concomitant coping strategies in developed than in developing countries. This paper, therefore, assesses the extent of losses suffered by farm households, their level of vulnerability and flood coping strategies.

Climate change affects agriculture in many ways, one of which is its direct impact on food production. This is particularly significant in developing countries, where agriculture is mainly rain-fed, providing employment and income for the majority of the population. This paper, based on data from 400 randomly selected farmers in Enugu and Imo states in South East Nigeria, assesses some effects of climate change and the cost implications of farmers' adaptation practices. Virtually all respondents reported unusual rises in extreme events such as thunderstorms, heavy winds and intense heatwaves; uncertainties at the start of the farming season such as unusual early rains, erratic rainfall and delay in the onset of rain; the incidence of pests, diseases and weeds; and signs of land degradation such as declining soil fertility and the drying up of streams or rivers. The overall impact (on farm yield and income) was significantly higher for Enugu than for Imo, possibly because Enugu has drier weather. The greatest perceived effects of climate change were reduced yield and income, drying up of streams and rivers, reduced storage quality of crops, loss of pastureland and/or vegetation and the destruction of wildlife ecosystems. Coping strategies with a relatively high profitability index were multiple cropping/intercropping, agro-forestry/afforestation, mulching, purchase/ harvesting of water for irrigation and the use of resistant varieties. Extension services need to promote appropriate adaptation practices among farmers.