SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS INFLUENCING MAIZE FARMERS’ AWARENESS ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the socio-economic factors influencing maize farmers’ awareness on climate change in Northeast, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in the selection of 337 respondents for this study. Descriptive and logit regression were used in analyzing the data. The results indicated that over one-third (37.09%) of the farmer’s fell within the age bracket of 41-50 years. Majority (87.80%) of the farmers were male and most (98.00%) of them were married. Further, the study showed that 44.5% of the farmers had between 7-10 household members and 14.8% of them had 11-13 household size with mean of 8 members. The result of awareness on climate change revealed that farmers were aware on the shortfall of rainfall (4.027) was ranked 1^st while awareness on decrease in agricultural production (3.991) was rank 2^nd. The estimated parameters of the binary Logit model show that level of education was found to positively influence awareness level of farmers at 5% significance level with coefficient of (β=0.5902). The marginal effect for education variable showed that one additional year in educational status of the household head increases the probability of 45% level of awareness of farmers on climate change issues The study recommend that government should provide good policy to improved extension service delivery and regular workshops, conferences, and international affiliations should be organize to provide updates on climate change issues as well as regular contacts with NiMet information in the study area.