THE EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED FARMERS IN BENUE STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Climate change is one of the prevailing environmental problems in the world and has gained universal discourse in recent time because its effects are multi – faceted. It is a single problem which has given birth to numerous known issues such as sea level rise, ocean warming, increasing temperature, rainfall variability, increasing evaporation and increasing tropical storms among others. These effects have also metamorphosed into some impacts such as the decline in agricultural activities, drought, migration, health problems, crises among farmers and herds – men, flooding, erosion, hunger and poverty among others and other numerous problems yet to manifest. Climate change refers to any change in climate over time that alters the composition of the global atmosphere (Audu et al, 2010). The Inter Governmental panel on climate change (IPCC, 2007 cited in Audu, et al (2010) refers to it as any change in climate or weather due to natural variability or as a result of human activity. Climate change is one of the most critical socio- technological issues mankind faces in the present century (IPCC, 2007 cited in Levi and Prashnant, 2010). In other words, climate change may be defined as the alteration of the climatic system over a long period. Bello (2010) further argued that an extreme weather event that exhibits temporary departures from the mean climatic state is not synonymous to climate change, but rather the long – term persistence of either positive or negative anomalies of a given or combination of climatic events above or below the normal that characterizes climate change. Also, the United Nation Frame Work Convention on climate refers only to the natural variability as the causes (according to African Partnership Forum, 2007 reported by Audu et al, 2010). Causes of climate change are two (2). These are natural causes which could be movement of continents due to plate tectonics, solar output of radiation, volcanism and ocean variability; and anthropogenic causes such as fossil fuel burning, deforestation, cattle rearing and so on (Ekundayo, 2010). Bello (2010), argued that climatic change could be due to astronomical, extraterrestrial, terrestrial and human activities. It should be noted that the activities of man are the major cause of climate change due to population explosion, advancement in technology and uncontrolled exploitation / utilization of natural resources among others.