Socio-Demographic Determinants of Response Strategies by Resource-Poor Farmers to Climate Change in South-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Direct and indirect socio-demographic attributes of the resource-poor farmers were determined in the study as potential controls of reactive and/or autonomous response to climate change. One thousand five hundred (1500) farming households (FH) were randomly drawn from six thousand (6000) estimated population of study in sixty (60) farming communities (FC) with the multi-stage survey research design. The critical path analytical technique with the multiple regression analysis backward solution was utilized to enhance understanding of patterns of relationships between eight socio-demographic variables. The variables were age of respondent, sex, educational level, average monthly income, cropping experience, crops grown, cropping pattern, farm enterprise and the response strategy/capacity (dependent variables). The sex, age and farm enterprise of respondent was shown to have 66% direct influence on the response capacity of the farmers, while the remaining five variables have accumulative 66% indirect effects. The direct socio-demographic factors that seemed more potent are suggested in planning adaptive responses built up to climate change for the farmers.