Agricultural Journal

Effects of Climate Change on Rice Farming in Ardo Kola Local Government Area of Taraba State, Nigeria

I. Emodi Angela and H. Bonjoru Fidelis

Abstract: The study examined effects of climate change on rice farmers in Taraba State. Purposive and multi-stage random sampling techniques were used in selecting 350 respondents. Data were collected using structured interview schedule and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Result showed that 80.0% of the respondents were male, 34.0% were in the age range of 34-40 years, 48.0% married and 48% single while 4.0% had no formal education. About 80.0% of the farmers had >20 years of farming experience; while, the average household size was 9 persons with 64.0% within the range of 6-10 persons per household. The findings further showed that mobile phones (96.0%) was the major source of information on climate change. However, stunted growth of rice plant ( = 3.95) and drying up of streams ( = 3.85) were perceived as major effects of climate change in rice production. Changing from upland rice farming to livestock keeping (88.30%), use of climate change resistant rice varieties (85.47%), development and adoption of climate resilient rice varieties and changing from rice farming to marketing and processing of paddy (83.51%) were the major adaptation measures to climate change in rice production among farmers. Adaptation strategies perceived by farmers included need for extension services/training on recent climate change ( = 3.15), treating rice seeds against pests/diseases before planting ( = 3.08). The study recommends the need for government to provide farmers with rice technologies which are adaptive to climate change in the study area.