CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
Climate change is one of the biggest environmental, social and economic threats that the world is experiencing (Mendelsohn et al., 2006). It is a threat to the fight against hunger, malnutrition, disease and poverty in Africa and Nigeria in particular, mainly through its impact on agricultural productivity. Agriculture, upon which society depends for the food, feed, and fibre that enable sustainable livelihoods, is one of the sectors that is most vulnerable to shifts in climate (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2007; National Research Council [NRC], 2010).
Climate change is said to exist when the level of climatic deviation from the normal is very significant over a long period of time (preferably centuries) and such deviations have clear and permanent impacts on the ecosystem (Odjugo, 2009). A drastic change in the climate systems either due to natural forces or unsustainable human activities results in climate change. The latter is regarded as the basic cause of on-going climate change and the advanced countries are most responsible (DeWeerdt, 2007).
Adaptation in the context of climate change is an adjustment in a system in response to actual or expected climatic changes and its impacts. It includes adjustments designed to moderate and offset potential damages or to capitalize on the changes in climate (PELUM 2010). Although climate change adaptation is recognised in Nigeria‘s development programmes and mainstreaming plans already begun, many policy analysts are of the opinion that policy statements declaring government‘s intentions are not new and the major limitation is whether appropriate mechanisms are put in place to ensure that the poorest farmers benefit from government‘s plan (Odozi, 2014).
Rice is Nigeria‘s most important staple crop, but despite ever-growing demand, the sector remains largely underdeveloped. There is great potential for production, particularly in the north, but Nigeria is actually one of the largest rice importers in the world, importing $3bn per year (Hussaini, 2016). Only 10% of Nigerian rice farmers have access to improved seed stock, compared to 25% in East Africa and 60% in Asia (Gyimah-Brempong et al., 2016), so national production is inevitably sub-optimal.
Rice transformation strategy under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) was launched in 2010 by the FGN to make Nigeria become rice self sufficient. The strategy was to produce more paddy and industrial grade milled rice that could compete with imported rice in the market. To this end, 268,000 farmers were given leverage through subsidies in seeds, fertilizers, provision of watering pumps for irrigation farming in ten
- States of the north namely: Niger, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano, Zamfara, Bauchi Jigawa Katsina, Kogi and Gombe (FGN, 2011). This indicates the importance of North-West
Nigeria and particularly Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States in rice production.
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