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CHAPTER 4
- Africa Institute of South Africa
- Chapter
- Additional Information
49 INTRODUCTION T here is general consensus that the climate is changing, and it poses serious challenges to food security and livelihoods in many developing countries. Countries whose economies are highly dependent on climate-sensitive sectors, like agriculture, fisheries and forestry, are expected to be hardest hit by the adverse impacts of climate change.1, 2 Nigeria is particularly vulnerable because the majority of its population (about 70%) engage in agriculture as their primary occupation and agriculture in the country is mainly rain-fed. Also, the country has a long (800 km) coastline that is prone to sea-level rise and almost two-thirds of the country’s land cover is prone to drought and desertification.3 Studies have shown that Nigeria’s climatic conditions have changed in the past decades,4,5 and this is expected to be severe in the coming years.6 Climate change is adversely affecting food production in the country and many farmers are losing their source of livelihood. Without an appropriate response, climate change is likely to constrain economic development and poverty reduction efforts in the country. In response to the threat of climate change, there has been increased attention to adaptation as large reductions in adverse impacts of climate change are possible when adaptation is fully implemented.7,8 Adaptation to climate change refers to “adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities”.9 Various adaptation options in agriculture have been suggested; these include: (i) farm production adjustments, such as crop diversification and altering the timing of operations; (b) market responses, such as income diversification and credit schemes; (c) institutional/ government responses, such as improvement in agricultural markets; and (d) technological developments, such as the CHAPTER 4 Maize Innovation for climate change adaptation EvidencefromruralNigeria Justice Akpene Tambo CHAPTER 4 50 development and promotion of new crop varieties and soil and water management techniques.10,11 Technological innovation has been found to be a viable and important adaptation option to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change and therefore it needs to be promoted.12,13,14 In view of this, many researchers are developing agricultural innovations, such as new crop varieties, that can tolerate climate-related shocks. Farmers are expected to adopt these innovations to be able to adapt to changes in climate. This chapter aims to analyse the adoption of one such innovation, the drought tolerant maize (DTM) innovation by smallholder farmers. Specifically, the chapter seeks to identify factors that influence adoption of the DTM innovation, farmers’ reasons for preferring the innovation and the constraints to adoption. The study was carried out in Borno State, a drought-prone area in Nigeria. It is one of the regions where DTM innovation is being promoted. The chapter proceeds as follows. The next section provides a brief overview of maize production in Nigeria, with an emphasis on DTM innovation. Section 3 describes the study area and methods of data collection as well as the analytical approaches. The results and discussion are presented in section 4 and section 5 concludes the chapter. DTM INNOVATION IN NIGERIA Maize is an important cereal crop produced throughout the world; it has become one of the dominant crops in Africa because it can be cultivated in a wide range of agro-ecological environments and has many uses. In Nigeria, maize is an important crop that is consumed as a staple food by many households and there is growing utilisation by industries for the production of flour, livestock feed, processed food and beverages and malt for brewing beer.15 Its production also serves as a source of income and employment for many rural households. The high demand for maize for households and industries requires increased production to satisfy the demand. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data, the land area planted to maize in Nigeria increased from 1.4 million hectares in 1961 to 3.3 million hectares in 2010. This phenomenal expansion of the land area devoted to maize cultivation resulted in increased production from 1.1 million metric tonnes in 1961 to 7.3 million metric tonnes in 2010,16 making Nigeria the second largest producer of maize in Africa after South Africa. Most of the maize in the country is produced in the rain forest zone, but there has been an increase in production in the savannas, especially the Northern Guinea Savanna (NGS). Most...