This study assessed rice farmers’ perceived effectiveness of adaptation strategies to climate change in Jigawa State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 183 respondents from whom data were collected using questionnaires. Data were summarised using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and Pearson Correlation. Majority of the respondents were males (98%), married (90%) and had formal education (66.1%) with a mean age of 41 years. On the overall, more than half (56.3%) of the respondents perceived the effectiveness level of adaptation strategies to climate change to be low, whereas 43.7% perceived it to be high. Insufficient farm credit, high cost of raw materials, inadequate capital, high cost of labour, limited access to land and inadequate information on weather were the main constraints to adaptation to climate change. The inferential analysis revealed that years of farming experience (r = 0.172, p = 0.020), membership of cooperative (χ 2 = 4.207, p = 0.047) and level of education (χ 2 = 9.570, p = 0.023) and extension contact (χ 2 = 14.270, p = 0.000) were significantly associated with respondents’ perceived effectiveness of adaptation strategies to climate change. Efforts should be made to sensitise farmers on the efficacy, appropriateness and applicability of adaptation strategies to foster favourable perception that will trigger positive attitude and subsequent adoption of the strategies where applicable. Government should implement policies that support farmers’ access to credit facilities that is intended to help enhance farmers’ capacity to build resilience. Farmers should be encouraged to take up membership of farm base associations so as to enjoy the benefits therein.

The study analyzed effects of Anchor Borrowers Programme on rice farming in Benue State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 125 beneficiary rice farmers of the anchor borrowers’ programme. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis and factor analysis. The results from the multiple regression analysis revealed that productivity of beneficiary rice farmers was positively and significantly determined by farm size at P≤ 0.01 but negatively influenced by seed and fertilizer at P≤0.01 and P≤ 0.05 levels. The R2 of 0.43 implies that 43% of the variability in rice productivity was accounted for by explanatory variables included in the model. The result of the amount of credit/inputs and mode of loan repayment revealed that beneficiary rice farmers in the study area had mostly from the programme received N50, 000.00 and paid back their loan mostly as part-payment in cash. Certain limited factors such as socio-economic factors, economic factors and institutional factors had constrained farmers’ access to credit and other inputs from the programme. It was concluded that rice production by the beneficiary rice farmers in the study area was not optimally productive. The study recommended that farmers should be advised to expand their farm lands to ensure efficient utilization of resources for increased productivity. Also, policies that will make credit accessible to farmers will go a long way in addressing their inefficiency problems.

The study analyzed the participation of male and female cattle farmers in cattle production in Bauchi and Yobe States Nigeria. A snowball technique was used in selecting one hundred and twenty (120) sample of farmers comprising forty (40) males and twenty (20) females from each of Bauchi and Yobe States respectively. Data on socioeconomic characteristics and participation in cattle production were collected using an interview schedule between April and June of 2021. The results reveal that male and female cattle farmers in Bauchi and Yobe States were active producers with mean age in years of 48.9 (males), 42.3 (females), 44.4 (males) and 41.4 (females) in Bauchi and Yobe States respectively. Male farmers had more cattle (x=38 in Bauchi and `x=20 in Yobe) than their female counterparts (`x=6 in Bauchi and`x= 2 in Yobe). The majority of farmers (male = 95%, female = 100%, male = 65%, female = 80%) in Bauchi and Yobe States respectively had no contact with extension but all farmers (100%) had membership of cooperatives. Male (`x=11.18) and female (`x=11.25) cattle farmers in Yobe State participated in cattle production more than male (x=9.78) and female (x=8.00) cattle farmers in Bauchi State. Both male (x=0.00) and female (x=0.00) farmers in Bauchi and Yobe States did not participate at all in breeding and artificial insemination. There was a significant difference (t = 2.223, p ˂ 0.05) in participation of male and female cattle farmers in cattle production in Bauchi State. There was no significant difference (t = -0.104, p ˃ 0.05) in cattle production between male and female cattle farmers in Yobe State. There was no participation in highly technical activities like breeding and artificial insemination. It was recommended that cattle farmers should leverage their membership of cooperative societies in accessing adult education especially in cattle production, credits and extension services and seek training in breeding and artificial insemination.