Agroforestry Practice As Adaptation Tools To Climate Change Hazards in Itu Lga, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
Agriculture is the human enterprise that is most vulnerable to climate change. Tropical agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture is particularly vulnerable, as smallholder farmers do not have adequate resources to adapt to climate change. While agroforestry may play a significant role in mitigating the atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG), it also has a role to play in helping smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change. A combination of participatory approaches including structured questionnaire, household survey, focus group discussions and field survey was conducted in Itu Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State Nigeria. Climatic elements of rainfall, relative humidity and temperature were collected from Uyo Meteorological Station, Akwa Ibom for 30 years. The study was aimed at ascertaining changes in climate pattern and contribution of agroforestry to the adaptation in the study area. Rainfall shows a decreasing trend of -1.32mm/year. Temperature and relative humidity showed increasing trend of 0.6430C/ year and 0.13 percent year respectively. Major causes of climate change in the area are deforestation ,fossil fuel burning, land use system, pollution, population, military activities, and economic pressure that had ( 28%,20%, 15%,15%, 12%, 10% and 13% respectively). Impacts of climate identified by the respondents were longer distance to access water, firewood, poor crop yields, malnutrition loss of farm land, migration, difficulty in collecting forest product, food security and unemployment. Increase in soil nutrient, provision of shade to crops, erosion control, income generation and sources of vitamin were 63%, 54%, 44%, 55%, and 35% respectively. Thus, agroforestry offers the potential to develop synergies between efforts to mitigate climate change and efforts to help vulnerable farmers to adapt to the negative consequences of climate change.
