Climate Change, Crop Protection Products, and Cocoyam Value Chain among Rural Women Farmers in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper critically examines the impact of climate change and crop protection products (CPPs) usage on cocoyam value chain among rural women farmers in Nigeria. we adopted a quasi-experimental design using survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, between the 2022 and 2023 farming seasons. A total of 800 rural women respondents were sampled across the five states of south-eastern Nigeria. The result from both descriptive and inferential statistics of propensity score matching indicate that climate change and usage of CPPs have made a significant impact on the production of cocoyam and such impact has affected decent job creation, food security and the entire rural economy in the country. While the study noted that wrong use of CPPs in coping with climate change has caused more harm to cocoyam production than the climate change itself. Hence, policymakers and development organizations should endeavour to encourage change agents to embark on massive training of the rural farmers on how to rightly use CPPs to improve productivity and improve food security in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. The study therefore suggests that any attempt to develop sustainable agricultural production policies that will be effective especially as it concerns cocoyam must involve a sound scientific knowledge of the present challenges facing the crop from the angles of climate change and maybe CPPs.