Determinant of Crop Preference among Food Crop Farmers in Nigeria: A Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VIII, Issue IX, September 2021 | ISSN 2321–2705

Determinant of Crop Preference among Food Crop Farmers in Nigeria: A Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

AJALA Adedolapo Kemi*, AJETOMOBI Joshua Olusegun, Olaoye Toyin Adebola
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, , PMB 4000, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract: This study investigates the determinant of farmers’ choice of food crops using a multinomial choice of crop selection. The analysis was based on agricultural data obtained from General Household Survey wave 4 for over 5000 farmers planting the six selected food crops (maize, rice, beans, groundnut, yam, cassava) across Nigeria. The climate variables for monthly rainfall and temperature for 1980- 2019 was obtained from Nigeria Meteorological agency. The multinomial logit regression model revealed that climate variables and other variables have varying effects on the probability of the choice of crop selected by farmers. One percent change in the explanatory variable leads to a more than proportionate change in the probability of selecting other crops relative to the maize (reference crops). The partial elasticities of rainfall, farm size are elastic for all the selected crops; labour is elastic for all the other crops and inelastic for rice and groundnut. The partial elasticities for the remaining variables, education, age, distance to market, are generally small in magnitude and are also inelastic. The study revealed that the choices of crop by farmers is sensitive to climate, the change in climate will therefore affect the production of some food crops that are sensitive to the harsh weather.

Key notes: Temperature, Rainfall, Crops, Multinomial Logit, Elasticity.

I. INTRODUCTION

Crop selection is a vital aspect of crop production; the farmer is to select which particular crop or combination of crops to grow among many food crops available for planting. Climate however is a major factor to be considered when it comes to crop production; the recent change in the climate has left the farmers in a dilemma of which crop has to be chosen to suit the frequent change in the climate. The Erratic changes in the onset of rains in the last two decades had led to situations where crops planted with the arrival of early rains get stifled in the soil by an unexpected dry spell; resulting in harvest failures in Nigeria and other ecosystems that rely on rain-fed agriculture. The recent changes in climate experienced in the past decades through extreme temperature, frequent flooding and drought has become a recurrent subject of debate globally.

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