Effect of climate risk adaptation on food security among farming households: The case of Nigeria

Abstract

Climate risk is a major threat to the sustainable food production of many farmers who depend on rainfed agricultural systems. In response to this threat, climate-smart agricultural innovations, such as drought-tolerant and early mature crop varieties, have been developed and promoted. It is well-known that adopting innovations and improved technologies positively impact adopters' well-being. Therefore, this study sought to determine the factors influencing the adoption of climate risk adaptation strategies and subsequently estimate how food security is affected by the adoption using questionnaire survey data from 1,080 farming households across six agro-ecological zones. The data were analysed using different matching techniques and Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR). The model results reveal that access to extension, crop-related and weather information, access to credit and climate change awareness of farmers increase the adoption likelihood of the climate risk adaptation strategies. Adoption of climate risk adaptation strategies positively impacts the food security of farming households as it increases their dietary diversity score and reduces the food security coping strategy index. Enhancing the accessibility of the drought-tolerant and early mature varieties, promoting crop-related and weather information through extension services, and empowering farmers through credit accessibility would strengthen the adoption of climate risk adaptation strategies to increase food security.