80 Joseph Omotoso Ajayi
based climate change awareness of cassava farmers; gender-based
cassava farmers’ constraints to climate change adaptation and examined
the factors influencing gender-based cassava farmers’ choice of
adaptation strategies in the study area.Keywords: adaptation, cassava farming, climate change economics, gender
analysis, Niger Delta
INTRODUCTION
Nigeria is the single largest producer of cassava in the world with the bulk
of the cassava coming out from the Niger Delta region (Ajayi, 2015). Human,
economic and agricultural activities are currently threatened in the region by
vagaries in climatic factors (Ajayi, 2015). Any human-induced change in
climate will occur against the “background” of natural climatic variations
(IPCC, 2007). These vagaries affect the production and profitability of cassava
(Ajayi, 2015). This is because according to (Sowunmi and Akintola, 2010),
agricultural production is weather-dependent in Nigeria, like in the rest of
developing countries. Gender means the social attributes and opportunities
characteristic with being male and female, the relationships between women
and men and girls and boys, and the relations between women and between
men. These characteristics, opportunities and relationships are socially
constructed and learned through the socialisation processes. Gender in the
context of this study relates to the roles of male and female cassava farmers in
climate change awareness and adaptation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Problem Statement
The Niger Delta region is at the heart of Nigeria’s economic,
environmental and geo-political significance (Ajayi, 2014a). The Niger Delta
with only more than 20% of the nation’s population is pivotal to Nigeria’s
economy as the area contributes over 80% of Nigeria’s revenue, accounts for
about 95% of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings (Ejumudo, 2013). The
region’s enormous reserve of crude oil and gas creates ample room for foreign
and local investments and its rich biodiversity in term of fauna and flora is
almost incomparable to any part in the world (Ajayi, 2014a, United Nations
Development Project-Niger Delta Human Development Report, UNDP-