Determinants of the Extent of Use of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices by Farm Households in Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change remains a threat to the ability of Nigeria to ensure food security, eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. Despite the unimaginable negative impacts, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the drivers of the extent of use of Climate-Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices in Southeast Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 366 farming households. The primary data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, adaptive strategy use index and ordered probit regression. The result showed that the majority (55.1%) of the respondents were males, married (81.3%) with a mean age of 48 years and on average, spent 11 years in education. The result of the extent of use of CSA practices revealed that the CSA practices frequently used were organic manure (0.9127), crop diversification (0.9117), crop rotation (0.9067) and mixed farming system (0.7411). The result of ordered probit showed that age (0.017), education (0.030), farming experience (0.082), farm size (0.239), extension access (0.543) and livestock ownership (0.429) influenced the extent of CSA practices. The study recommends a more robust extension outreach to rural farmers to enhance farmers' adoption and use of CSA practices to mitigate climate change and improve farm income.