Climate Variability and Farmers Adaptation Strategies on Crop Production in Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

climate variability is the way aspects of climate differ from an average. temperature and precipitation are two most important climate parameters that are most studied in climate research because of their immediate impact in various socio-economic sectors. climate data and crop yield records were acquired. quantitative data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of the IBM SPSS statistics software version 21 and the Microsoft excel software. analytical tools such as frequency, percentages, cross-tabulation, chisquare and trend equations and graphs were used to analyse the quantitative data. the statistical analysis showed an annual increasing trend of 0.133. the lowest average annual temperature was recorded in the year 1992 with an average value of 34.37oC, while the highest was recorded in the year 2012 with an average value of 47.93oC. the mean for the thirty-five-year period was 39.71oC, the mead deviation (MD) was 1.73 and the standard deviation (SD) was 2.34. the study concludes that there is strong positive relationship between climate and crop yield in the study area. it thereby recommends that there should be time awareness and enlightenment campaign on the causes of climate change in various parts of the country.