Perceived Influence of Climate Change on Food Security Among Residents of Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State

Abstract

The study focused on the perceived impact of climate change on food security among residents of Abakaliki Education   Zone of Ebonyi state. Six research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study was anchored on coping strategy theory. A survey research design was adopted for the study. the population of the study was 726,201 while the sample size was 400 respondents selected through a multi-stage sampling technique. Instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled the Perceived Influence of Climate Change on Food Security. The instrument was validated by three experts from the departments of Home Economics, Human Kinetics and Health Education as well as Measurement and Evaluation unite of Science Education. The reliability of the instrument was tested using Cronbach Alpha which yielded a coefficient of 0.95. Data collected from the research question items for the study were analysed using mean and standard deviation. The result of the study revealed that climate change affects crop yield of farmers in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State, climate change influences availability accessibility/affordability, stability and food utilisation among residents of Abakaliki Education   Zone of Ebonyi state. The results from the study further revealed that there is a significant difference in the mean rating of male and female on the influence of climate change on food security in Abakaliki Education  zone, there is significant difference in the mean rating of rural and urban residents on the influence of climate change on food security in Abakaliki Education   zone and that there is a significant difference in the mean rating of respondents on the influence of climate change on food security in Abakaliki Education   zone based on educational qualification. It is against this backdrop that the study recommended that government should provide incentives and agricultural tools that would help in improving crop yields and that government should enhance the availability of food in the food market by providing farmers with climate resistant crops to enhance agricultural production among others.