Climate change awareness and its determinants in a growing city in the southwestern Nigeria using Multivariate Analysis

Awareness of climate change scenario is essential to the success of its global remediation efforts. Thus, a study was conducted to assess the awareness of climate change in a growing town of Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria. Data for the investigation was generated through the administration of 150 questionnaires across randomly selected adult inhabitants. Of the entire questionnaire, 123 were returned while the rest were either mutilated or returned uncompleted. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted. Descriptive analysis showed that 74% of the respondents had no knowledge of climate change while 21.1% claimed knowledge of it. All respondents that claimed knowledge got the information on television and 76.9% got it on radio. Also, 95.9% of those who had knowledge believed that the solution to climate change associated risks should be borne by international bodies because the menace is global while 86.1% believed it is the responsibility of the Federal Government. Factor analysis results showed that four factors predict awareness of climate change bordering on availability and dissemination of climate change-associated issues and perception about who tackles the control of and the impact of climate change. It is therefore recommended that information on climate change should be made available and be widely disseminated, especially its impacts and that international communities in conjunction with the national government should take charge of the control and of the associated risks. Further investigation is required to assess the coping and adaptation strategies to climate change effects in the study area

Temporal Water Balance Analysis in Different Climatic Scenarios in Oyo State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to examine water availability in different climatic scenarios in Oyo State. The data used comprised of rainfall and temperature records. The spans of the data used vary from one station to the other: 38-year data for Ibadan and 37-year for Ogbomoso stations, both collected from NIMET Office, Ilorin while 11-year also collected from the Office of Oyo State Agricultural Development Programme (OYSADEP) Headquarters at Shaki were available for Shaki Station. Evapotranspiration data for the three stations were empirically generated while water balance model was computed using MATLAB R2007a version in order to determine the respective water availability and the regression analysis was used to determine rainfall trends. The results showed that rainfall amounts vary from year to year and also increasing trends in the three stations over the period examined. It was also discovered that in all the periods investigated across the stations, Ibadan has 81.58%, Shaki, 81.81% and Ogbomoso, 56.80% as wet years indicating that there is abundant water resources in Oyo State. It is recommended that strategies be put in place to exploit excess rainwater for various purposes especially by increasing the capacity of water reservoirs and dams across the State for development of pipe borne water network and also, for irrigation farming during dry spells. Further investigation is recommended on water balance and its implications for agricultural practice in the study area

Understanding the Perception of Mango (Mangifera indica) Farmers on the Impact of Climate Change on Mango Farming in Nigeria

Climate change (CC) scenario is already acknowledged as one of those environmental challenges that threaten every facet of life including mango farming. This study was designed to investigate into mango farmers’ perception of the impacts of climate change (CC) on mango farming. A structured questionnaire was administered among 480 mango farmers across six of the states where mango farming is carried out in Nigeria. Both descriptive and inferential statistical methods were applied in the analysis of the data. From the 418 completed and returned questionnaires analysed, it was found that the male gender dominated the respondents in the survey with a proportion of 68% while 61% use pesticides to control pests and 35% own between 1 and 3 acres of mango farmland. The data were subjected to KMO and Bartlett’s tests, the results of which showed that the data are factorable with p≤0.05. Factor analysis (FA) extracted six (6) out of the fourteen (14) variables analysed which were significant to explain the perceptions of the farmers on the impact of CC on mango farming, namely: (i) change in the volume of mango production; (ii) effect of high temperature; (iii) prolonged dry season; (iv) rainfall pattern; (v) incidence of flooding; and (vi) poor performance of mango seedlings. Further analysis showed the prominence of issues relating to climate change. The implication of these results is that mango farming is also being threatened by CC. Hence, it calls for urgent mitigation actions to salvage this subsector. Farmers need to be adequately supported by stakeholders in their efforts to adapt to the ravaging effects of CC on mango farming through relevant policies and programmes. The work also recommended further investigation on the efficacy of the adaptive methods on mango yields