Psychological perspectives on smallholder farmers' choice of climate change adaptation strategies and productivity nexus in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

In recent pasts, high priority has been placed on encouraging the implementation of various climate change adaptation techniques to adapt to the disastrous effects of climate change. Like in other countries affected by climate change, Nigerian farmers were also encouraged by governmental and non-governmental organisations to implement techniques for adapting to climate change impact. In this study, we use a psychological approach to investigate how a mix of socioeconomic and psycho-cognitive factors affect smallholder farmers' decisions about various climate change adaptation strategies and the consequent impact of the adoption of adaptation strategies on crop yield. Following the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the adoption decision of farmers was modeled using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and the ordered probit model. The impact of adopting adaptation strategies on productivity was evaluated using multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR). The MESR helps to address endogeneity issues that might arise as a result of inconsistencies in the behavioural responses of the farmers. Our result indicates that psycho-cognitive factors like intentions and personal norms significantly predicted the number of climate change adaptation strategies the farmers ultimately embraced and implemented on their farms. We also found that the smallholder farmers' yield and income were most significantly impacted by the adoption of land restoration as a climate change adaptation strategy. The findings will assist in the design of more effective policy instruments to remove adoption hurdles as well as crafting tailored extension services that resonate with the realities of the farmer and thus help foster behavioural change.