An Assessment of the level of Farmers Awareness and Adaptation to Climate Change in Northern Taraba State, Nigeria

local gaps failures in this study intends to examine the level of their Abstract: This paper investigated the extent of awareness of climate change by local farmers in northern part of Taraba State, Nigeria. The study explores the choice of adaptation measures employed by the local farmers and the constraints to such measures. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data obtained from a survey of 248 farmers from 31 villages in six local government areas of northern Taraba State. The finding of the study reveals that about 88% of the farmers are aware of climate change in the study area, however, only 48% of the respondents claimed they know the causes of climate change. 90% of the farmers claimed that they have been affected by recent changes in climate in the study area through low rainfall, excess rainfall, flooding and extreme high temperature. The study findings show that most of the farmers’ opinion, observations and adaptation measures to climate change agrees with experts report. The study findings show that the common adaptation measures applied by the local farmer’s in the study area include altering of planting season, use of different tillage system, use of tolerant seed variety, planting early maturing variety and crop diversification/mixing. Despite the peoples’ awareness and adaptation to climate change in the study area, lack of finance hinders farmers from getting the necessary resources and technologies that facilitate adapting to climate change. The study recommends the need to increase farmers’ accessibility to information on adaptive research findings on early maturing, insect/pest tolerant, and high yielding varieties through increase extension service and soft loans to the farmers.

adaptation to climate change and it implication to the attainment of food security in Taraba State Nigeria. The study covers the 6 LGAs that make up northern Taraba state.

Description of the Study Area
Taraba state is the second largest state in terms of landmass in Nigeria. It is located in the southern part of north eastern Nigeria along the eastern borderland between Nigeria and Cameroon. The state lies roughly between latitude 6 o 25'N and 9 o 30'N and between longitude 9 o 30'E and 11 o 45'E. It is bordered on the west by Nassarawa and Plateau States, to the north by Bauchi and Gombe States and by Adamawa State to the northeast. It also shares its south western boundary with Benue State. Taraba State is bounded on the south and south east by the Republic of Cameroon (an international boundary). The state covers a land area of about 60,291km 2 with a population of about 2,300,736 people according to the 2006 census.
Taraba state is made up of 16 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and 3 Senatorial districts (northern Taraba, southern Taraba and Taraba central). Northern Taraba (the study area) consists of six LGAs, Ardo Kola, KarimaLamido, Lau, Jalingo, Yorro and Zing. The area has a tropical continental type of climate with wet summer and dry winter. Rainfall usually start around May/June and ends at about September/October. The area receives an average rainfall of about 900mm per annum. The mean maximum temperature of the area is about 30 o C. The highest air temperature is normally experienced in March and April. Maximum temperature ranges between 26 o C to 39 o C, while minimum temperature ranges between 15 o C to 18 o C the vegetation of the study area is the Sudan savanna woodland.
The major occupation of the people of northern Taraba State is agriculture. The crops cultivated include maize, guinea corn, millet, rice, cowpea, groundnut, melon, yam and cassava. Animal rearing is also very important and includes cattle, sheep and goats.

Data Collection
The data used for this study were obtained from a survey of farmers in six LGAs of northern Taraba state, Nigeria. The data were obtained during the 2012 cropping season. Data were collected using a pre-tested, wellstructured questionnaire on socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, level of awareness of climatic variables, methods of adaptation, problems of adaptation and factors influencing choice of adaptation techniques. A total of 248 local farmers were selected from 31 villages of the six LGAs of northern Taraba State. The local crop farmers were chosen because the effect of climate change is likely to be more instantaneous on them. The data generated was analyzed using descriptive statistics which summarized the socio-economic characteristics of the local farmers, level of awareness of climate change, methods and problems of adaptation.

Result and Discussion of the Findings
The demographic data shows that 71.8% of the respondents are male and 28.2% are female as shown in Table  1below. The demographic data also shows that 18.9% are within the ages of 2 30 years, 35.1% are between 31-40years, 29.7% between 41 -50 years and 16.3% are between the ages above 51years. The result also shows that 49.6% of the respondents are married, 32.3% are single, 8.8% are divorcee and 9.3% widow. The study findings show that the most common crops cultivated in the study area include cereals, legumes and tubers such as Maize (26.6%), rice (21.9%), groundnut (13.3%) and yam (11.5%) as shown in Table 2. These crops which form the staple food in the study area are susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Further analysis shows that 87.9% of the respondents were aware of changes in climate conditions in recent years, while 12.1% are not aware of any changes in climate. This corroborated the findings of Ishaya and Abaje (2008) which shows a high level of climate change awareness among local farmers in Kaduna area of northern Nigeria. When the respondents (local farmers) were asked if they know the causes of the change in climate conditions in recent years, 48 percent of them responded in affirmative, while 52 percent claimed that they don't know the causes of climate change. Also, when the farmers were asked if the changes in climate condition in recent years has affected their farming activities, 90.3 percent responded in affirmative while 9.7 percent of the respondents claimed that they don't know. The respondents stated that some of the changes in climate conditions that they have observed in recent years include low rainfall, excess rainfall, late onset of rainfall, early cessation of rainfall, flooding and extreme high temperature.
When the farmers were asked how low rainfall has affected them, their response ranges from reduced crop yield (91.1%) to reduce water for livestock (6.5%) as shown in Table 3. On the other hand, when the farmers were asked how too much or excess rainfall affects them, their response ranges from destruction of farmlands by flood (81%) to submergence of houses by flood (11.7%) as shown in Table  4. This corroborated the findings of Oruonye (2012a); (Oruonye, 2012b)which shows an increasing cases of flood disaster in the study area with worse flood in 2005 and 2012 in which over 5000 farmlands were destroyed. When the farmers were further asked how extreme high temperature affect them, their response ranges from wilting of crops (46.4%) to spoilage of farm produce (47.2%) as shown in Table 5. Yam which is a common crop in this zone is susceptible to spoilage with high temperature. Research findings also suggest that increase in temperature can lead to increase in pest development and fecundity and frequency of outbreaks of insect pest and diseases that affects crops and livestock (Spore, 2008). Thus, the increasing temperature in the study area has a tendency of affecting yam production in the study area, with implication on food security.

Adaptation to Climate Change
When the farmers were asked if they have been making any effort to adopt or adjust to climate change regarding their farm operation, 69.8 percent of the respondents respond in affirmative while 30.2 percent insist that they have not been making any effort. In terms of accessibility to adequate information on how to adapt to climate change, 41.9 percent of the respondents believed that they do have access to adequate information while 58.1 percent claimed that they do not have access to adequate information on how to adapt to the problem of climate change. When the respondents were asked what major challenges can hinder or limit their adaptation efforts in the present circumstance, the respondent response ranges from information accessibility (54.4%), appropriate technology (20.2%), necessary inputs (11.3%) and required labour for adaptation measures (14.1%) as shown in Table 6. Ishaya and Abaje (2008) reported similar findings in their study in Kaduna state and Onyeneke and Madukwe (2010) in south east rainforest zone of Nigeria. On the most suitable adaptation measures applicable or relevant to the farmer's immediate environment, the respondent's response ranges from altering of planting season (27%), use of different tillage system (23.4%), use of tolerant seed variety (14.1%), planting early maturing variety (29%) and crop diversification/mixing (6.5%) as shown in Table 7.

Discussion
The findings of the study show that the farmers were very much aware of the recent increase in rainfall in the study area which resulted in flood disaster. The losses that the farmers incurred in the last flood disaster which ranges from loss of farmlands, crops, livestock and homesteads among others (Oruonye, 2012a;2012b)were still fresh in their memories. Although one may think that the local farmers in the study area may not understand the concept of global warming or climate change, but they observe and feel the effects of decreasing rainfall, increasing air temperature, increasing sunshine intensity and seasonal changes in rainfall patterns. An increase in temperature is conducive for a proliferation of pests and diseases, which are detrimental to crop production (Ozor and Nnaji, 2011). Increased temperatures and accompanying decrease in water availability reduce the length of growing seasons and yield potential and hence the areas suitable for agriculture, further adversely affecting food security over the continent (Thornton et al., 2006). The observations of the farmers are corroborated by a study that recorded a reduction in mean annual rainfall of 22.2 percent and a gradual rise in average maximum temperatures of 1.3ºC or 4.3 percent from the 1961 to 2006 in West Africa (Gyampoh et al., 2007). Increasing temperature and intense sunshine, coupled with prolonged rainfall shortages, cause crops to wilt. Some cocoa growers described their trees withering as a result of exposure to intense and prolonged sunshine.
Adaptation to climate change refers to adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities (IPCC, 2001). Adaptation methods are those strategies that enable the individual or the community to cope with or adjust to the impacts of the climate in the local areas. Adaptation to climate change includes all adjustments in behaviour or economic structure that reduce the vulnerability of society to changes in the climate system (Smith et al., 1996). Such strategies will include the adoption of efficient environmental resources management practices such as the planting of early maturing crops, adoption of hardy varieties of crops and selective keeping of livestock in areas where rainfall declined. They also include the use of technological products that enable the individual to function in the ''new'' condition. Obviously, adaptation strategies are expected to be many, and their combinations in various ways will be required in any given location. Whether people can adapt, and for how long, depends on the resources available (Onyeneke and Madukwe, 2010).
The study findings show that the common adaptation measures applied by the local farmer's in the study area include altering of planting season, use of different tillage system, use of tolerant seed variety, planting early maturing variety and crop diversification/mixing. The use of tolerant seed and animal varieties/species provides useful adaptations and resilience to the effects of climate change. Such crops or animals are known to survive and complete their life cycles normally even when the environment will not allow others to thrive. The increased adoption of tolerant varieties/species may not be unconnected with the fact that farmers encounter serious pest and disease infestations and weed growth, which have been recognized as the most significant effects of climate change (Ozor and Nnaji, 2011). It has already been reported that one of the many adaptations to climate change involves the use of resistant varieties such as early maturing varieties or drought resistant ones (Maddison, 2006). Mixed farming practice is adopted by farmers for many reasons such as to ensure food security, increased income, reduced incidence of pests and diseases, among others (Ozor and Nnaji, 2011). These common adaptation methods adopted by the local farmers agrees with modern climate change adaptation measures advocated by scholars (Bradshaw et al., 2004); (Kurukulasuriya and Mendelsohn, 2006;Nhemachena and Hassan, 2007;Onyeneke, 2010).
Despite the peoples' awareness and adaptation to climate change in the study area, lack of finance hinders farmers from getting the necessary resources and technologies that facilitate adapting to climate change. Adaptation to climate change is costly (Deressa et al., 2008), and the need for intensive labour use may contribute to this cost. Thus, if farmers do not have sufficient family labour or the financial means to hire labour, they cannot adapt (Onyeneke and Madukwe, 2010).Africa is the region most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change and at the same time has low adaptive capacity. But the people, particularly at the local level, are making efforts to adjust to the changes they observe.
None of the farmers indicated use of irrigation as an adaptation measure to climate changes in the study area. This corroborates with earlier findings of Oruonye (2011) that farmers are not exploiting fully the huge irrigation potentials of the area. The limited use of irrigation in the area could be attributed to its capital intensive requirements, lack of agricultural inputs and the total dependence on rainfed agriculture. The main barriers to adaptation to climate change are lack of information on appropriate adaptation option, lack of finance, and shortage of farm labour.

Conclusion
The study has investigated the extent of awareness of climate change by local farmers in northern parts of Taraba State, Nigeria. The study explores the choice of adaptation measures employed by the local farmers and the constraints to such measures. The findings of the study show that most of the farmers were aware of climate change in the study area, however, only a few of the respondents claimed they knew the causes of climate change. Most of the farmers claimed that they have been affected by recent changes in climate in the study area through low rainfall, excess rainfall, flooding and extreme high temperature. The study findings show that most of the farmers' opinion, observations and adaptation measures to climate change agree with experts report. The study findings show that the common adaptation measures applied by the local farmer's in the study area include altering of planting season, use of different tillage system, use of tolerant seed variety, planting early maturing variety and crop diversification/mixing. Despite the peoples' awareness and adaptation to climate change in the study area, lack of finance hinders farmers from getting the necessary resources and technologies that facilitate adapting to climate change.

Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made; i. There is need to intensify effort at environmental enlightenment campaign through jingles in mass media and local farm exhibitions on the effects of climate change. ii. There is need to increase farmers accessibility to information on adaptive research findings on early maturing, insect/pest tolerant, and high yielding varieties among others through increase extension services in the study area. iii. Extension services should be improved upon.