Determinants of Agricultural Sustainability in Southeast Nigeria -The Climate Change Debacle (Published)
The renewed quest for sustainable economic development which is synonymous with sustainable agricultural development and hence agricultural sustainability impelled this study titled “Determinants of Agricultural Sustainability in Southeast Nigeria”. Southeast Nigeria is located within latitudes 5oN to 6o N of the equator and longitudes 6oE and 8oE of the Greenwich (prime) meridian (M.S corporation, 2009). Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a sample of 312 cassava based food crop farmers from whom data were collected using structured and validated questionnaire. Data bothering on the respondents’ socio-economic characteristics, the type, quantity, and sources of inputs used and output produced were collected. These were analysed with the use of descriptive statistical tools and ordinary least square multiple regression analytical tools. Result showed that factors such as farm size, annual income, household size, level of education, and climate change are significantly and inversely proportional to sustainability level of farmers, while labour cost was significantly but directly proportional to agricultural sustainability. It was concluded that, efforts should be made at both micro and macro levels of government to improve on the mitigation and adaptive strategies of climate change available to farmers by making such more affordable, available and user friendly through extension education on the appropriate uses of such technologies in a more sustainable manner.
Keywords: Adaptive and Mitigation, Appropriate, Climate Change, Determinants, Regression, Sustainability