CONSTRAINTS TO CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION STRATEGIES AMONG MAIZE FARMERS IN NORTH-EASTERN NIGERIA

The study assessed constraints to climate change adaptation strategies among maize farmers in Northeastern, Nigeria. A Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in select 337 respondents for the study. Frequency counts, mean, percentage, ranking and factor analysis (PCA) were used to analyze the data. The results showed that over one-third (37.09%) of the farmers’ age with mean of 40 fell within the age bracket of 41-50 years and majority (87.80%), (60.8%) of the respondents were male and not members of any organization while most (98.00%) of the farmers were married.. Findings further indicated that drought was the major perceived cause of climate change (X=4.2) and farmers affirmed that land degradation causes weather variability (X=3.9). The result concludes that significant reasons contributed to low adaptation of improved climate change strategies among the respondents and respondents were less likely to adapt climate change strategies due to unfavorable government policies. The study suggested that socio-economic factor, environmental factor and climate information factor, policy factor, institutional factor, weather factor, personal and disease control factor, were the main factors affecting climate change adaptation strategies among maize farmers in the study area.