The study examined factors influencing rice farmers` vulnerability to poverty, identified coping strategies employed by farmers to manage livelihood shocks that predisposes them to poverty and determined the impact of poverty on rice production in Nasarawa state, Nigeria. The study was carried out in Nasarawa rice hubs Nasarawa state. A two stage sampling technique was employed to select 121 rice farming households across 5 communities. Data was collect using questionnaire and personal interview and the data was analysed using household vulnerability index (HVI),fussy set analysis, regression analysis(ordered probit and OLS) as well as descriptive statistics. HVI analysis reveals that 16.5% of the households has low vulnerability to poverty, 65.3 has moderate vulnerability to poverty while 18.2% has high vulnerability to poverty. Ordered probit regression result reveals that access to information, number of shocks (idiosyncratic and covariate) exposed to by households, and years of farming significantly affect household vulnerability to poverty in the studied area. The study therefore, concludes that majority of the households are moderately vulnerable to poverty which implies majority of the household has been affected so hard that they need rapid-response poverty alleviation strategies to be liberated from poverty. It was also shown that rice farmers in the study area rely majorly on help from friends and relatives, also borrowed food in order to cope with livelihood threats. The study also concludes that Fulani herds men crisis, communal crisis, flood and poor linker roads are the major challenges facing farmers in the studied area. تفاصيل المقالة

Climate change is one of the most serious challenges confronting agriculture, particularly, in rural Nigeria. This study examined the perception, adaptation strategies and challenges of climate change among rural households in Kogi State, Nigeria. A two stage sampling techniques was used in the study. The first stage involves the purposive selection of six (6) rural farming communities, followed by a random selection of twenty (20) farmers each from the communities making a total of 120 respondents, the data were elicited with the aid of a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, percentages, mean distribution and ranking. Most farmers observed change in climate, on their perception of climate change, the result showed that majority (44.9%) perceived climate change not to be severe, 41.5% perceived climate change to be very severe while 13.6% were undecided. On the perceived effects, most (87.5%) agreed to prevalence of pest and diseases, followed by high temperature (85.5%) as the major consequence of climate change in the area. Pesticide application (81.7%) was the major adaptive strategy used in the study area. Mulching (66.7%) is also very common in the area. Lack of government support (88.3%), inadequate extension services (86.7%), lack of finance (83.3%) among others were the main constraints to adaptation adoption in the study area. The study concluded that the respondents were aware and knowledgeable on the issues of climate change. There is need for government to make concrete efforts to enact appropriate policies on climate change adaptation. تفاصيل المقالة