Factor Path of Constraints to Adaptive Capacity on Climate Change among IFAD-VCDP Farmers in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Aim: Adaptive capacity is the ability of the farmer to adjust his farm plans and programmes in the face of emerging risks, constraints and currently available information. In this study, the various constraints faced by International Fund for Agricultural Development-Value Chain Development Programme’s farmers (IFAD-VCDP) in North Central Nigeria in adapting to climate change challenges were investigated.
 Study Design: A multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the selection of respondents.
 Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Benue and Niger States of Nigeria in 2018.
 Methodology: Data were collected from a total of 483 respondents using interview schedule and questionnaire. The data were analysed using exploratory (principal component analysis) and confirmatory (structural equation modelling) factor analysis.
 Results: The results of the analysis revealed the significant constraints the farmers faced in order to improve their adaptive capacity to climate change which were institutional and technical (49.45%) and climate information (26.62%) constraints, although the factors differ slightly within the two states under study. In Benue State, institutional (31.26%), personal (14.63%), land and farm inputs (12.54%) and population (11.73%) while in Niger State, public and institutional (22.34%), land and farm inputs (14.78%), and personal (10.75) were the constraints to adaptive capacity.
 Conclusion: These constraints make it harder to plan and implement adaptation actions by restricting the variety and effectiveness of options available to the farmers to improve their productivity and cope with the vagaries of climate change. It was therefore recommended that government and NGOs should intensify efforts on public, institutional, educational and climate policies, assist in increasing the adaptive capacity of the farmers in order to employ more adaptation measures, land governance systems should be strengthened in Nigeria to provide tenure security for all, financial institutions should help facilitate access to credit by farmers and assist in making reliable climate information accessible to all farmers.

Effects of Savings and Investment on Food Security Status of Farm Households in Selected Local Government Areas of Niger State, Nigeria

“…Result of the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) in Table 7 shows that all the 11 variables correlated at least 0.3 with at least one other variable which implies that the variables are correlated, indicating that there is relationship between the variables and also uniquely contributing to explaining the data matrix of the variables scale, suggesting reasonable factorability (Sallawu et al, 2020). Secondly, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy was 0.740 which is middling based on the KMO classification.…”

“…PCA was used to group the constraints with the aid of principal factor method with varimax orthogonal rotation method developed by Kaiser [36]. The model is presented in equation ( 3 To judge the sampling adequacy and the factorability of the matrix as a whole, Bartlett's test of sphericity and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) were used following Chong et al (2013) and Sallawu et al (2020).…”

“…The Cronbach's alpha is based on the average inter-item correlation. According to Sallawu et al (2020), a scale with a Cronbach's alpha higher than 0.7 is required in order to create a reliable construct of exploratory studies. Based on the results of the reliability consistency presented in Table 9, the internal consistency reliability for the overall scale, factors 1 and factor 3 were acceptable with values of 0.703, 0.748 and 0.774, respectively.…”