Effects of climate change on food crops productivity in Nigeria: assessing impacts, adaptation strategies, and media communication

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the effects of climate change on food crop productivity in Nigeria from 1991 to 2022. It assessed how climate variables such as rainfall, temperature, sunshine duration, carbon dioxide emissions, and relative humidity influenced the aggregate productivity of selected food crops. The study also assessed the climate change impacts, adaptation strategies and media communication contributions to the food crops productivity. The research utilized secondary data analyzed through econometric models, including the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) tests. The findings revealed that rainfall, temperature, and sunshine duration positively affected crop productivity, although their impact varied with time lags. Conversely, lagged values of carbon dioxide emissions and relative humidity had negative effects on food crops productivity but media communication had contributed towards positive applications of sustainability agriculture. The study concluded that climate change significantly impacted food crop productivity in Nigeria during the study period. It recommends the adoption of climate-resilient crop varieties, improved irrigation infrastructure, enhanced agricultural extension services and engagement of media communication to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on food productivity in Nigeria.

Keywords

• Adaptation strategies
• Climate change
• Food crops
• Media communication
• Productivity
• Nigeria

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