Climate change impacts on staple crops: Assessment of smallholder farmers’ adaptation methods and barriers

Crops in Sub-Saharan African countries are generally more vulnerable to climate change with considerable impacts on yields. In this study, the impacts of climate change on selected root crops, cereals and vegetables were examined with the practice of adaptation as well as barriers hindering the adoption of selected adaptation options in selected farming communities in Ogun state, Nigeria. The climate dataset ranging from 1982 to 2020 and crop yield data ranging from 1996 to 2020 were used in this study. The social data was collected through a structured questionnaire administered among a total of 120 rural farmers purposively selected for the study. The data collected were analysed and presented using descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations and regression statistics. The results showed a high variation in climatic variables together with an obvious anomaly index with severity. The correlation results indicate a strong relationship between rainfall minimum/maximum temperatures and most crops, with R > 0.60, at p > 0.05. The results of multiple regression showed R2 ≤ 0.64 values for all crops at p < 0.05. This result implies that climate parameters accounted for significant percentage of the changes in yields. The results also showed low practice of adaptation among rural farmers and the major barrier hindering the practice of adaptation is lack of capital, including financial, physical, and human capital, which was responsible for 70% of the hurdles to climate change adaptation measures implementation. The key findings here are that the cropping system has been impacted by climate change and that the adaptive capacity of rural farmers in the study area is generally low. The study concludes that although climate change is obvious, there is generally a need to enhance the adaptation options available to smallholder farmers in the region.