Factors Influencing Adoption of Climate Smart Practices among the Smallholder Oil Palm Farmers in Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the factors influencing smallholder oil palm farmers’ adoption rate of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices and adoption rate of each CSA practice in the oil palm producing belt of Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 300 smallholder oil palm farmers in Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Ondo State Nigeria. Ordered probit regression model was utilized to analysis the factors influencing the smallholder oil palm farmers adoption of CSA practices and adoption rate model was used to determine the rate of adoption of each CSA practice in the study area. The adoption rate shows that the most adopted CSA practice among the smallholder oil palm farmers is avoiding slash and burn practices on oil palm fields and in new developments with adoption rate of 0.743. From the result of the ordered probit model, the price of First Fruit Bunches (FFB) was positively significant at 1% and the marginal effect for the price of FFB shows that an increase in price of FFB will increase the probability of having high adoption rate for CSA practices by 11.86% among the respondents in the study area. The study recommends that extension agents should intensify their sensitization and advocacy program among the smallholder oil palm farmers on the need to adopt CSA practices in the study area.