Farmers' Perception of Climate Change in Ondo State, Nigeria

Climate change is a phenomenon that is seen generally as a threat to agriculture, rural economy and livelihood of the farmers. Therefore, the need to study the rural farmers’ perception of climate changes and its effects led to this study. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 60 farmers per each ecological zone in Ondo State making a total of One Hundred and Eighty Farmers. From the study, the result of the 5point-likert scale revealed that in the guinea savannah ecological zone, the farmers’ perceptions of climate change were high intensity of sun (3.88), high degree of temperature (3.88) and unusual drought (4.18). In addition, in the rain forest ecological zone, the farmers’ perception of climate change was frequent rainfall (3.50). However, in the mangrove forest ecological zone, the rural farmers’ perceptions of climate change were incessant flood (4.80) and frequent rainfall (4.27). Also, the result of the F-ratio statistics revealed that there is no significant difference in the farmers’ perception of climate change in the three distinct ecological zones of the state. In conclusion, it was clear that the farmers in the state did not have full understanding of the concept of climate change. It was recommended that government at all levels should sensitize the farmers on the concept of climate change in the State