Climate smart agriculture practices by rural women in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria: Adoption choice using Multinomial Logit Approach

Abstract

Women who farm in rural communities of Nigeria are typically poor and are vulnerable to events of climate change. An understanding of the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices engaged by these women is required to strengthen and improve their adaptive capacity to cope with climate change events. An empirical study was, therefore, conducted to investigate the factors influencing rural women’s choice of CSA practices. Through the multistage sampling procedure, 280 rural women in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria were selected as representative farmers. Data were collected using a semistructured questionnaire. Multinomial Logit Model was employed to analyze the data. Analysis revealed that the most critical factors influencing rural women’s choice of adopting CSA practices were age, education, frequency of extension contact, membership in a cooperative and farm size. Findings further showed that age of women farmers significantly influenced the probability of choosing to adopt crop residue mulching and improved high yielding varieties (p<0.01). Results also revealed that the educational level of women had a positive and significant (p<0.05) influence on choice of efficient use of fertilizer. Results of the study further revealed that the choice of non-adoption, cover cropping and crop residue mulching was significantly influenced by the size of farmland. Women’s decision to choose agroforestry was significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the terrain of farmland, as farmers with steeper and slopy lands had a higher probability of choosing agroforestry. Improving women access to educational opportunities would be rational policy option for adoption of CSA practices.