EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION STRATEGIES ON MAIZE PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY IN OTUKPO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the effects of climate change adaption strategies on maize production efficiency in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 100 respondents for the study. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). The results revealed that maize farmers were in their productive age with mean age of 31years. Majority (55%) of the maize farmers were married. The average household size, farm size and years of farming experience were 6 persons, 2.5 hectares and 8 years of experience in farming, respectively. The result on the climate change adaptation strategies used  by the maize farming households revealed that most of the farmers adopted adjustment Improved/multiple varieties (17.6%), multiple planting dates (18%) and fertilizer application (20.6%) as climate change adaptation strategies in the study area. The result of predicted Stochastic Frontier model showed that the minimum and maximum technical efficiencies (TE) of the maize farmers were 0.11 and 0.98, respectively, with the mean efficiency of 0.88. This showed that if the efficiency of resources usage is increased by 12.0 percent, the maize farmers would operate on the production frontier given the existing technology. The result on the influence of climate change adaptation strategies used by maize farmers in the study area further revealed that the coefficient of farm size, fertilizer and agrochemicals had positive relationship with the value of maize output at P≤0.05, P≤0.10 and P≤0.01 levels, respectively. The result of the inefficiency model revealed that improved/multiple varieties and fertilizer application increased inefficiency of maize production at P≤0.05 and P≤0.10 levels, respectively, while alternative tillage practices decreased inefficiency of maize production at P≤0.01 level. The study concluded that maize production in the study area was not optimally efficient. The study recommended that farmers should be provided with credit facilities to help improve their capacity to adapt to climate change. Also, development partners should focus on awareness creation of farmers on better production techniques and climate change adaptation strategies through mass media and agricultural extension.