Factors Affecting Vulnerability to Climate Change and Choice of Livelihood of IFAD-VCDP Farmers in Benue State, Nigeria.

Abstract

This study investigated factors affecting vulnerability to climate change and choice of livelihood of IFAD-VCDP farmers in Benue State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected through personal interviews from 240 sampled IFAD-VCDP farm households. The household vulnerability index and Beta regression model were used to analyze the data. The results of household vulnerability revealed that 45.8% of the households were lowly vulnerable to climate change, 36.67% were moderately vulnerable and 58.75% were highly vulnerable. The estimates of the Beta regression model revealed that adaptive capacity, years of formal education, farm income, non-farm income, credit use, total livestock unit, household size and total livelihood activity influence the farmers’ vulnerability. IFAD-VCDP farmers were found to be vulnerable to climate change, hence it was therefore recommended that government and NGOs should assist in increasing the adaptive capacity of the farmers by conducting campaign on climate change adaptation techniques, encourage the farmers to invest more in non-farm activities to serve as coping strategies and financial institutions should assist farmers with agricultural loans.