CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES, PRODUCTIVITY AND FOOD SECURITY STATUS OF ARABLE FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN NORTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The challenge of food insecurity still persists irrespective of the various climatic adaptation strategies adopted by arable farming households to improve crop productivity. Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAP) are vital tools for curbing the menace on agriculture. There are scanty empirical results on CSAP, its effect on productivity and food security among arable farming households. Hence, the effect of CSAP on productivity and food security status of arable farming households in North western Nigeria were investigated. A four-stage sampling technique was adopted. Katsina and Sokoto States were randomly selected. Ten Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly selected from Katsina (six) and Sokoto (four) proportionate to size. Additionally, 30 villages were randomly selected from all the LGAs proportionate to size. Thereafter, 577 households were randomly selected from all the villages. Using structured questionnaire, data were collected on socio-economic characteristics (age, household size, sex, marital status and education), enterprise characteristics (farm size, farming experience, livestock ownership and land ownership), level of use of CSAP and farmers‟ perception of climate change impact. Farming households were categorised into levels of use of CSAP using composite score [low-user (0-3), medium-user (4-6) and high-user (7-10)]. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, adaptation strategy use index, ordered probit, Total Factor Productivity - TFP [deteriorating level (<1) and progressive level (≥1)], ordinary least square regression, cost-of-calorie measure and binary logit model at α0.05.

Age of household heads was 48.4±9.8 years with household size of 10.9±5.7 persons. Most of the household heads were male (91.0%), married (92.2%) and acquired quaranic education (45.1%). Farm size and farming experience were 4.2±3.3 hectares and 25.6±10.9 years, respectively, with majority owning livestock (84.9%) and inherited land (77.5%). The low-user, medium-user and high-user households were 18.4%, 57.5% and 24.1%, respectively. Farmers‟ perception of climate change impact were increasing temperature (74.5%), decreasing rainfall (74.2%), negative impact on crop yield (72.3%), short duration of rainfall (61.9%) and severe impact of drought (12.3%). Use of organic manure (2.316), conservation agriculture (1.902), crop diversification (1.878), planting of cover crops (1.863) and crop rotation (1.731) were the most used CSAP. High-user of CSAP were influenced positively by age of household head (β=0.09), sex of household head (β=0.49), farming experience (β=0.02), livestock ownership (β=0.28) and membership of a social group (β=0.41). The TFP of most household heads were at deteriorating level (63.0%), while 37.0% were at progressive level. Seed (β=0.01), organic manure (β=0.0002) and being a high user of CSAP (β=0.60) increased TFP, while labour (β=-0.01) and inorganic fertiliser (β=-0.001) decreased TFP. Food insecurity line was estimated as N79.06/day. About 44.0% of the arable farming households were food secure, while 56.0% were food insecure. Food security status increased with being a male headed household (ME=0.15), education (ME=0.01), non-farm income (ME=2.11e-06) and being a high user of CSAP (ME=0.23), but decreased with household size (ME=-0.07). High level of use of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices improved productivity and food security status of arable farming households in North-western Nigeria.