Despite the role that rural women in Nigeria play in protecting the environment, not many studies acknowledge their contributions. As part of efforts to highlight women's contributions, this study interviewed 60 women between the ages of 20 to 60 on how important the environment is to their livelihood and how they protect it. Fifty percent (50%) of the women identified as farmers, forty percent (40%) as traders, three percent (3%) as housewives and seven percent (7%) identified as public servants. The participants reported that their activity under those capacities makes them interact closely with the environment; at different levels though. As part of efforts to protect their environment, these women engage in activities such as tree planting, manure application, sustainable harvesting and environmental sanitation as ways to give back to the environment. In their bid to protect their environment, the women face challenges such as poverty, cultural barriers, and the lack of government support. Policy makers are called upon to acknowledge the role of rural women in protecting the environment and include them in programmes surrounding conservation, disaster management, awareness campaign and rural development.

Presently, the state of poverty in Nigeria is frightening and climate change impends food security and increase poverty. The study was motivated by the increasing consequence of climate change and its impact on farmers in the study area. Farming households changing agricultural practices as a result of global observation of environmental changes. This research established a link that exists between climate smart agricultural practices and poverty in Katsina and Sokoto States.  It was based on this that the study wants to evaluate the climate smart indicators influencing agricultural practices on sorghum enterprise in the study area. A multi-stage purposive and random sampling techniques was used to select three hundred (300) farming households in the study area. The objective was therefore, to determine factor influencing indicators of climate smart agricultural practices within sorghum enterprises in the study area. The study employed Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Ordinary Least Square (OLS) of the regression model to analyze the objective of the study housing material was significant at (P<0.01) and education was significant at (P<0.05). The study reccommends that:’Government, Non-Governmental Organizations and farmer’s associations should create  a conducive learning environment by developing trainings and farmer friendly programmes such as environmental friendly farming systems  to encourage rural household farmers develop interest and adopt climate smart agricultural farming practices. Extension delivery system  approach should be down to earth’’ to meet the imformation age.

This study assessed the perceived effects of farmer participation in utilization and conservation of forest resources in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State. Data were collected from 150 farmers randomly selected, using structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using both Yakubu et al.; AJAEES, 35(4): 1-9, 2019; Article no.AJAEES.51231 2 descriptive (percentages, frequencies and means) and inferential statistics (multiple linear regression). Result of the analysis indicated a low participation of farmers in forest conservation. The farmers however, had a positive perception on the fact that community participation in forest conservation increases job opportunities (X = 4.65) and reduces poverty (X = 4.16). Result of the linear regression analysis revealed that age had a negative (-0.009142: p < 0.01) and significant relationship with farmers' perceived effect of community participation in utilization and conservation of forest resources, while household size (0.0169081: p < 0.05), education (0.0503444: p < 0.1) and farm size (0.1228889: p < 0.1) all had positive and significant relationships with farmers' perceived effects of community participation in utilization and conservation of forest resources. It was concluded that farmers' participation in conservation of the forest was very low. The need for sensitization of the farmers on the importance of participation in forest conservation by all the stakeholders was recommended. Original Research Article