FORMAL INFORMATION SOURCES ON PLANNED MITIGATION ACTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE AMONGST RICE FARMERS IN NORTH-EAST, NIGERIA

The study assessed formal information source on planned mitigation actions to climate change amongst rice farmers in North-east zone, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling techniques was employed to select 300 rice farmers. Data for this study were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The analytical tools used in this study was descriptive statistics. The results show that 33% of the respondents were within the age bracket of 47-54 years, with a mean age of 47 years making this group the majority. An overwhelming majority (98.7%) of the respondents were male, and 85.6% were married. More than half (54.7%) reported a household size ranging from 7-11 members and most had 18-24 years farming experience, with a mean of 17years. In addition, over half (53.7%) of the respondents had no formal education. The result of users of planned mitigation actions to climate change shows that majority (95.3%) of rice farmers across the zone have not used planned mitigation actions. Also, the result of formal information source on planned mitigation actions to climate change fell within the mean range of 1.0-1.70 level. Based on the findings of this study it was concluded that the socioeconomic status amongst rice farmers in the zone was poor, formal information source on planned mitigation actions to climate change were generally low and the use of planned mitigation actions to climate change were broadly below average among rice farmers in the zone. Therefore, it is recommended that there should be a modality through which socioeconomic status of the farmers would be improved. Formal Information sources should live up to their responsibility in providing farmers with sufficient information to enable effective use of planned mitigation actions. Government and non-governmental organizations should devise a means to encourage to use planned mitigation actions to climate change amongst rice farmers.