Heterogeneity of adaptation strategies to climate shocks: Evidence from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria

Abstract

There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that climate shocks undermine food security and livelihood well-being of the climate-impacted Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Employing survey data collected from farming and fishing households in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, the study investigated the range of adaptation practices prevalent in the region, as well as factors influencing the adoption of these adaptation strategies. Five hundred and three (503) households (252 fishing households and 251 farming households) were selected using multi-stage sampling techniques. Multinomial logit model was used to determine factors affecting the household choice of adaptation strategies. The results show that adaptation strategies adopted by farming households were livelihood diversification (78.5%), crop management (77.7%), and soil and water management (64.5%). Factors influencing their choice of adaptation strategies were age, gender, household size, education, extension, and farm size. The adaptation strategies employed by the fishing households were livelihood diversification (83.61%) and intensification [which include the use of improved fishing gears (80.33%), varying fishing locations (67.21%), and expanding area of fishing (40.98%)]. Uncovering the heterogeneity in adaptation and resilience aspects to climate shocks has immense practical significance, particularly in providing targeted assistance for the two livelihood groups’ adoption.

Determining Factors for Farmers to Engage in Sustainable Agricultural Practices: A Case from Indonesia

“…The independent variables were age, formal education, agribusiness experience, farm size, and the level of activity and involvement in their farmers' group. Age, agribusiness experience, and farm size were hypothesized to have a positive impact on the dependent variables, based on previous studies [5,22,23,[27][28][29]40], as explained in the previous section. Formal education was considered ordinal data (=0 if the respondent had not completed any formal education; =1 if they completed elementary school; =2 if they completed junior high school; =3 if they completed senior high school; =4 if they completed higher education); its completion was hypothesized to have a positive impact on the dependent variable [27].…”

“…Previous studies have shown that age has a significant effect on farmers' adaptability to new agricultural technologies and practices. For example, in several studies [22,23], Onyenekwe and others argued that older farmers are more perceptive regarding their surroundings; this is due to their greater farming experience, making it easier for them to perceive and process information. However, greater farming experience can also make farmers less interested in engaging with new agricultural technologies and practices [24][25][26].…”

Farmers’ motivations and behaviour regarding the adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices and activities

“…Four of them are focused on African countries. The studies report interesting insights into the analysis of farmers' aspirations (Deißler et al, 2023), of the factors affecting the adoption of strategies for adapting to climate change (Onyenekwe et al, 2023), of diversifying in off-farm activities (Ceriani et al, 2023), of improving economic, social and environmental sustainability with livelihood strategies (Prazeres, 2023) and agroforestry practices (Seegers et al, 2023).…”

“…The paper "Heterogeneity of adaptation strategies to climate shocks: Evidence from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria" authored by Onyenekwe et al (2023) analyses the adaptation strategies to climate shocks uptaken by farmers and fishermen in the Niger delta region (Nigeria) and the main factors driving their adoption. The econometric analysis of the data collected from more than 500 interviewed farmers and fishermen shows that livelihood diversification, crop management, soil and water management strategies are the solutions mostly adopted.…”