Cassava is one of the most important staple food crops in Nigeria and throughout Africa, contributing significantly to food security and poverty reduction. Climate change risk for cassava farming has edged most farmers into the struggle to adapt to climate change’s negative impacts. FAO (2017) and the Nigerian government recommends the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices for improving crop productivity, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing poverty. However, the level of adoption and impact of adopting relevant CSA practices may vary by gender exacerbating gender inequality due to different resilience or adaptive capacities. These dynamics remain largely understudied, especially in Nigerian staple crop production systems. This study is being designed to deepen understanding of the nexus between gender, CSA adoption, food security, and broader measures of multidimensional poverty among smallholder cassava farmers.
Objectives (Research Questions)
- What are the factors that incentivize households to adopt CSAs?
- Are there significant gender-differentiated impacts of multiple CSA adoption on nutritional outcomes?
- Are there significant gender-differentiated impacts of multiple CSA adoption on multidimensional poverty status?
Methodology
Data: All data will be drawn from the four waves of the Nigerian General Household Survey (GHS), collected in 2011/2012, 2013/2014, 2015/2016 and 2018/2019. The panel consists of nationally representative survey of approximately 5,000 households.
Possible Outcomes
Results from this study will be written into journal articles and published in a highly referred journal. We also intend to prepare a policy brief for the national government that will help in the implementation of the existing National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) which already has a component promoting the adoption of CSA strategies especially among women. The output from this study is expected to expedite action towards the attainment of the UN SDGS especially, SDG 1: end poverty, SDG 2: zero hunger, SDG 5: gender equality and SDG 13: Climate action.
