EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES OF ARTISANAL FISHERFOLKS IN COASTAL AREAS OF SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA

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INTRODUCTION
In Nigeria, agricultural production remains the main source of livelihood for rural communities in most parts of the country and a significant proportion of the rural population engage in artisanal coastal fishing activities. The fisheries sector is a significant aspect of Nigeria food system accounting for 40% of the population's annual protein intake. Fishing generates income and employment to thousands of poor people and trade in fisheries products contributes to poverty reduction and national economic growth (Adebayo et al., 2014). In Nigeria coastline, virtually all rural coastal communities depend largely on the fish resources for their livelihood. They harvest, process and transport the fish to market and generate income at every stage. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2014) fisher folks are sometimes referred to as small-scale fisheries. Artisanal fisheries can be subsistence or commercial fisheries, providing for local consumption or export (FAO, 2014). Fishing inputs commonly used include canoe, paddles, hooks, gill nets, cast nets, beach seining and drift nets. Over the years' significant rise in poverty of workers engaged in the agricultural sector including fisheries has been recorded. Climate variability including climate change is a key factor affecting fish production and the ability of rural communities to achieve their poverty reduction and sustainable development goals The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognizes the Nigerian coast as one of the low-lying lagoon coasts in West Africa which is likely to experience severe affects from flooding as a result of rising sea levels and climate change. Increased frequency and intensity of storm surges from the Atlantic Ocean and changes in wave climate observed in recent years have had serious negative impact on fishing activities and well-being of fisher folks. Adelekan and Fregene (2008) opined that storm surges destroy fishing boats and fishing gears including nets where they are kept on the beaches. Affected fishermen are usually incapacitated as they are no longer able to fish until boats and nets are either repaired or replaced. For many fishermen this is not easily achieved. Floods in coastal communities as a result of rising sea levels, storm surges and increased rainfall during raining season months has also become a major threat to coastal dwellers. Other effect is flooding of fish ponds especially those sited in wetlands and farms nationwide. (While the most noticeable impact of climate change is seen in Nigeria's coastal areas as erosion of coastline beachfront, especially in Lagos State. According to Opele (2012) the potential impacts of climate change on fisheries include water surface temperature rise, sea level rise, increasing water salinity and ocean acidification, changes in primary production and changes in fish stock distribution. Such changes could lead to disruptions in the food chains of aquatic flora and fauna, habitat destruction, depletion in food stock and prey-predator composition, destruction of coastal fish landing, and risk to processing and marketing sites. These negative effects when combined together have adverse impacts on the already strained resource, thereby reducing fish production. Fregene (2002) noted that depletion of fish stock and reduction in fish production could threaten the livelihoods of many vulnerable fisher folks' communities and the food security of many countries in the region.
The general objective of this study was to assess the effect of climate change on the livelihood of artisanal fisher folks in Coastal Areas of Southwest, Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study were to: a) describe the socio-economic characteristics of fisher folks; b) ascertain the livelihood activities of artisanal fisher folks; and c) determine the access of fisher folks to information by extension services. Based on the objectives, these null hypotheses were tested: H01: There is no significant relationship between selected socio-economic characteristics and effects of climate change on livelihood activities of artisanal fisher folks; and H02: There is no significant difference between the effect of climate change on livelihood activities of artisanal fisher folks across the coastal states in South West Nigeria.

MATERIALS AND METHODS The Study Area
The study was carried out in coastal Southwest of Nigeria which comprises of Lagos Ogun and Ondo States. Southwest coastal area has a marine shoreline of about 330 km and rich water resource for fishing and other aquatic activities.

Sampling Procedure
A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select the respondents for the study. In the first stage, purposive sampling was used in selecting all the three (3) coastal states and one (1) Local Government Areas namely; Ibeju-Lekki LGA in Lagos State, Ogun waterside LGA in Ogun State and Ilaje LGA in Ondo State were purposively selected and this was based on the fact that these LGAs were the prominent ones where intensive fishing activities take place.
The second stage involved the selection of fishing communities. 20% of the fishing community was selected which gave nine (9) fishing communities from Ibeju/Lekki, five (5) from Ogun waterside and three (3) from Ilaje LGAs. A total of 17 fishing communities were selected for the study. The third stage involved (10%) of the total fisher folks in each of the seventeen fishing communities. Thus, a total of 422) fisher folks were selected for the study (Table 1).

Method of Data Collection
Data were collected using structured interview scheduled that was administered to the respondents by the research and the trained enumerator.

Method of Data Analysis
Data were analyzed using both descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, mean, percentage, standard deviation and inferential statistics (chi-square and PPMC).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results in Table 2 revealed that majority of the respondents were in their active age which implies that majority of the respondents were within economically active age bracket and therefore constitute a good labour force that can cope with the rigours of fishing operations and is in agreement with Olusegun and Mathew (2016) that this age bracket composed of the innovative, motivated and adoptable individuals and majority was male. This implies that males were involved in the act of fishing because of the strenuous nature of the occupation while majority had one form of education or the other and this implies that they can read and write thus making it easy for extension agents to disseminate information to them.  Table 2 results also revealed that majority (64.9%) of the artisanal fisherfolks were of Yoruba ethnic group. This is mainly due to the fact that the Ijebu ethnic predominate Ibeju/Lekki and Ogun waterside LGAs while Ilajes are predominant ethnic group in the coastal areas of Ondo State. Table 3 showed that (77.3%) of the respondents involved in fish catching. While (63.3%) engaged in fish processing and (73.0%) engaged in fish marketing. This implies that male fisherfolks engaged in fish catching because they have the ability to withstand the tedious operation of canoe paddling. The result corroborated that of Olaoye et al. (2012) who observed that women are involved more in fish processing and marketing than other fishery activities.

Access of Fisherfolks to Extension Services
Finding in Table 4 shows that majority of the respondent across the three States did not have access to extension services while very few indicated they often had access to extension services. This indicates that artisanal fisherfolks did not readily have access to extension services which can negatively affect their productivity. This finding agrees with the work of Oose et al. (2015) who reported poor extension visits to artisanal fisherfolks in coastal communities in Southwest, Nigeria.  Table 5 indicate that climate change has varied socio-economic impacts that are experienced at different levels, individual, households and whole community. Majority (85.8%), (84.8%) and (97.2%) experienced flooding, ocean surges and intensity rainfall respectfully. This implies that floods occur with sea transgressions sometimes with heavy rainfall that cause road tracks inundation, house losses, public health hazards and losses of potable water owing to saltwater intrusions into wells, farmland losses and population displacement

Relationship Between Selected Personal Characteristics of Fisherfolks and Effects of Climate Change on Livelihood Activities of Artisanal Fisherfolks Across all Sampled States
The results (Table 6) of chi-square analysis showed that age ( 2 = 8.10), farming experience ( 2 = 18.13), household size ( 2 = 18.08), and income ( 2 = 51.94), were significantly related to effect of climate change on livelihood activities of artisanal fisherfolks across sampled states. However, the Table 6 results revealed that no significant relationship existed between effects of climate change on livelihood of artisanal fisherfolks and marital status of the fisherfolks across sampled States.

There is no Significant Difference Between Effects of Climate Change on Livelihood Status of Artisanal Fisherfolks Across the Sampled States
Results of ANOVA (Table 7) showed that there is significant difference in the effect of climate change on livelihood of artisanal fisherfolks (F = 13.565; p = 0.000) across the selected States in South West Nigeria at p<0.05 level of significance. Similarly, results of scheffe's post hoc test showed that effect of climate change on livelihood status of artisanal fisherfolks were significantly different in Lagos State compared to that of Ogun State and Ondo State. However, Ogun and Ondo States belong to the same homogenous subsets. The results revealed that Lagos State fisherfolks recorded the highest effect of climate change followed by Ogun State and then Ondo State. The implication is that the effect of climate change on livelihood activities of artisanal fisherfolks varies slightly across the sampled States but confirms that there is evidence of significant difference.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Sequel to the outcome from the study, it could be concluded that artisanal fisherfolks mainly use, gill nets, siene nets, surrounding nets, cast net for their fishing activities. Other livelihood activities of the fisherfolks are farming, oil palm processing, petty trading, out board engine repair and coconut trading. The fisherfolks experienced effects of climate change in area of flooding, ocean surges and intensity rainfall. Other effects include increased waves, disease outbreak, wind storm, and erosion. The study concludes that Lagos State fisherfolks recorded the highest effect of climate change followed by Ogun State and then Ondo State. It was therefore, recommended that in order to assuage the impacts of climate change in coastal areas of Southwest, Nigeria, extension agents knowledgeable in fisheries and climate change should be deployed to the study area by the government as well as adequate funding as a strategy of strengthening awareness campaign/sensitization exercise on climate change. Incentive on fishing inputs at subsidized rate should be made available to all stakeholders in the fishing communities.