4. Research location

influenced agricultural productivity negatively in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, mostly in Nigeria, and had thus resulted in decline of food production. Numerous climate variability effects are outcomes of human activities bothering on industrialization, agricultural expansion, deforestation, bush burning, use of inorganic fertilizers, intensive livestock farming system and storage of wastes in landfills [46]. Landfill for example, releases lots of greenhouse gases to the environment thereby increasing the scourge of global- warming on humans and their crops [16]. Literature asserts that non-adaptation of climate smart strategies vis-à-vis lack of awareness creation about climate variability in communities, could aggravate a poor Nigerian economy at a percentage loss of between 2% and 11% GDP, by year 2020 [47]. The foregoing assertion could further worsen, to a record low of 12–50% by year 2050 [1, 48]. Such a negative trend can compromise the attainment of the purported Sustainable Development related Goals

Nevertheless, the magnitude to which maize yield drastically reduced in last two consecutive years in Nigeria, creates the need for researchers to examine existing knowledge gaps on smallholder maize farmers' perception climate change variability in South-eastern Nigeria; as

Nigeria's ecological conditions and cultural diversities put the country at an advantage for production of a wide range of food products [25]. However, the Climate Change Vulnerability Index 2014 classified Nigeria's vulnerability as extreme and ranked the country as number six [6] most vulnerable country to climate change [39, 48]. This extreme vulnerability has negative implications for agricultural production and food security, especially in South-eastern Nigeria. The awareness of farmers to adopting improved seed varieties as a panacea for climate change adaptation, has been relatively widely studied in Nigeria [3, 4, 9, 11, 13, 42, 50]. However, most previous climate change research measured the level of change in decades (long term) without considering the short term effects and adaptations [40]. The above illustrations also apply to

In a nutshell, smallholder maize farmers with a deep understanding of the specific environmental factors that determine or limit the growth of their crops, would have better capabilities to significantly increase their crop yields by making through rightful choices and using of novelty approaches of climate smart agriculture. Therefore, understudying the relative influence of farmers' awareness toward curbing severe climate change impacts on their maize plant

The pervasive role of Geospatial technology in solving agricultural problems has widely been established. Therefore, Geographical Information System (GIS) is a type of Geospatial technology that provides the means to collect and use geographic data to assist in support of food production and food security. GIS is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and

a remedy to forestalling future low maize productivity in the country.

Nigerian South-eastern states including Anambra State [6].

associated attributes, which are spatially referenced to the Earth [51].

[27, 49] in Nigeria.

3. Statement of the problem

118 Corn - Production and Human Health in Changing Climate

growth and yield, is very crucial.

Located in South-eastern Nigeria, Anambra state lies between Latitude 6� 45<sup>0</sup> and 5� 44<sup>0</sup> N and Longitudes 6� 36<sup>0</sup> and 7� 20�E [38]. The climate is humid with mean average rainfall of 2010 mm and average temperature of 87�C (Figure 1). It has a weak soil that is easily eroded [38]. The climate here is tropical. The average annual temperature is 27.0�C. The rainfall here averages 1828 mm. The driest month is December, with 7 mm of rain. Most precipitation falls in September, with an average of 306 mm (Figure 2).

The state is divided into four agro-ecological zones (AEZ): Aguata, Awka, Anambra and Onitsha. The sites for this present study are shown in Figure 3. There is a difference of 299 mm of precipitation between the driest and wettest months. The average temperatures vary during the year by 3.8�C. The state occupies a land area of approximately 4887 km<sup>2</sup> and a population of 4,182,032 people based on the 2006 census figures. According to the Nigeria's National Population Commission figures of 2006, the population distribution is 2,174,641 million males and 2,007,391 million females. Anambra state is bounded to the north by Kogi state, to the south by Imo and Abia state, to the east by Enugu state and to the west by Delta state.

In 2006, maize production index for Anambra state was put at 69,1000 metric tonnes [48]. However, the state has in recent years, been substantially experiencing fluctuations in maize production at a decline rate of 23.28%. The decrease in maize yield in this Southern Nigeria, can be attributed to: (a) climate change related flooding [9, 25]; that re-occurs almost every year; and (b) non-adaptation of climate-smart measures by smallholder maize farmers [52, 53]. However, climate change adaption measures for maize, which is one of the most important grain crops, is less studied in Anambra State [6]. Another knowledge gap scenario is that, there is a limited

Figure 1. Average temperature per month (left) and average days with precipitation per month (right). Source: adopted from https://www.yr.no/place/Nigeria/Anambra/Anambra\_State/statistics.html.

Figure 2. Climograph (left) and temperature graph (right and down) of Anambra state. Source https://en.climate-data. org/location/46675/#temperature-graph.

Development Programme, which formed the sample frame). The distribution is as follows; Anambra-520, Aguata-680, Awka-620, Onitsha-450. Sampling Techniques and sample size: A multi-stage sampling method was used in selecting the sample units for the study. Anambra state is made up of four agricultural zones, namely, Anambra, Aguata, Awka and Onitsha. One extension block was randomly selected from each of the four agricultural zones to avoid bias; Awka north, Orumba north, Oyi 1 and Idemili to give a total of four blocks. Secondly, two circles were randomly selected from each of the four blocks again to give equal coverage, the selected circles were Amansi and Awba ofe nmiri from Awka north, Ufuma and Ajali from Orumba north, Nteje and Umunya from Oyi 1 and Nkpor and Obosi from Idemili north, thereby giving a total of eight circles. In the fourth stage, two sub-circles were randomly selected from each of the circles, the selected sub-circles were Ore, Egbe agu, Umu eze and Enugu agu from Amansi and Awba ofe nmiri, Umu onyiba, Umu ogem, Umu abiama and Umu ereh from Ufuma and Ajali, Umuefi, Achalla, Umuebo and Amaezike from Nteje and Umunya, Akuzor, Nbuba, Ire and Umu ota from Nkpor and Obosi, thereby given a total of sixteen sub- circles. The last stage involved random selection of eight farmers contact from each sub-circles. In all, a total of 128 farmers (respondents) were chosen from a list comprising of 2270 small scale maize farmers provided by Anambra ADP which formed the

Figure 3. Map of Anambra state showing the four sampled study sites of Akwa North, Idemili, Orumba North and Oyi 1

GIS-Based Assessment of Smallholder Farmers' Perception of Climate Change Impacts and Their…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79009

121

Reliability of Instrument: Reliability of the questionnaire was tested using cromlech alpha

sampling size.

method which is 0.82%.

local government areas (L.G.A.).

empirical evidence as to what extent climate variability is perceived by the smallholders maize farmers in Anambra state. These scenarios create the pertinent need to researching the assessment of smallholders maize farmers' perception on climate variability and its emerging consequences on their livelihoods in Anambra State of Nigeria.
