Effect of climate smart agricultural practices on food security among farming households in Kwara State, North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change brings a huge threat to the sustainability of food production and other livelihood activities in vulnerable areas like Nigeria, because it relies majorly on rain-fed agriculture. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of climate smart agricultural practices (CSAP) on food security of farming households in the Kwara State, North-Central Nigeria. A three-stage sampling technique was used to select ninety farming households, and a structured questionnaire to obtain information for the study. The collected data were analyzed using the food security index, adaptation strategy use index and logistic regression model. The result revealed that crop rotation is the most used CSAP in the study area, and that 16.67 % of the respondents are low users, 53.33 % medium users and 30 % high users of CSAP. It was also observed that 58.9 % of the farming households are food secured, while 41.1 % are food insecure. The logistic regression showed that the food security of the farming households is significantly affected by education, access to extension visits, farm size, off-farm income and CSAP.

Keywords

• climate change
• rain-fed agriculture
• crop rotation