Successful implementation of these strategies will improve production and favour the farmer and the farming families. The farmers are complaining of sweeping changes they could not comprehend as their previous knowledge could not serve them competently. It is thus necessary to determine the extent to which climate change has impacted on the farmers and their families in the region and as well important to testthe suggested adaptation strategies for conformity in the locality. Niger Delta like most coastal low lying regions of the world is constantly faced with flooding of various degrees.However, due to increased and varying extent of precipitation attributable to climate change, the occurrence of flooding has increased with rivers and oceans easily overflowing their banks. This was observed in the 2012flooding that impacted negatively on agriculture in the region.
The flood ravaged farmlands, storage buildings and farmers houses. Climate change seems to have impacted to a low extent on water availability for irrigation as well as drying up of ponds and streams. This finding is true to the region as artificial irrigation is seldom practiced and increased precipitation has ensured constant supply of water to ponds and streams. As stated, wet regions will receive more rain while dry regions will become even drier. Increase in mortality rate tied directly to climate change in the region was not indicated by the respondents. This finding disagrees with who stated that there will be increased death rate due to factors favoured by climate change.Climate change has impacted negatively but moderately on most farming families though with some farmers reporting that the extent of impact is slightly high on cost of production as well as on net profit from farming thus impacting on poverty level of farmers in the region. This finding is in agreement with that of that stated that difficulty on farm operations and cost of agricultural production will increase with decreasing returns to the farmer.Findings of the study revealed that significant difference does not exist between the mean responses of the farmers and the extension workers on the perceived impacts of climate change on farmers and the farming families in the region, as indicated by t-test. Any observed difference is not a statistical difference, but a mere chance which could have resulted from sampling error. The farmers and the extension workers strongly agreed to construction of foot bridges with wood, stones and sand bags as a coping strategy mainly due to its affordability and suitability and not waiting for government and foreign aid. This strategy is really in use in the region to divert flood water and create walk ways.The respondents disagreed with planting deeper than the usual planting depth as a coping strategy likely due to the specified planting depth for various crops. If the depth is increased beyond the required, the plants may not germinate well or results to scanty germination as some of the seedlings may not successfully pass through the increased depth to germinate. Sand filling water logged area to reclaim lost land seems to be an expensive and tedious practice as a coping strategy for an indigent farmer. Trips of sand to fill the vast water logged area could cost the farmer a fortune he may not be able to afford. This is the explanation given by majority of the respondents as to why they disagreed with this option as a coping strategy. For changing profession entirely, most farmers interviewed revealed that “farming is all they know and for the elderly, it is already late to change profession”.The farmers disagreed to changing from production of agriculture to marketing due to the vital role of local farmers as producers. On further inquiry using the interview, the farmers simply reply “if everyone switches to marketing, who will do the production for supplies to be marketed?” For artificial irrigation as an alleviating strategy, most farmers in the region are too poor to own boreholes in their farms. The region being a coastal one does record high occasion of rainfall in a planting cycle. This was explained as the reason why most crop farmers in the region practice rain-fed agriculture. This view is supported by who stated that the abundant rainfall in the region favours rain-fed agriculture.The farmers and the extension workers agreed to most of the suggested coping strategies. These findings are favoured by the views of many authors such as – who suggested the adaptive measures against climate change as contained in their respective works.The opinion of the farmers and the extension workers is at variance with each other, may be due to varying degree of education, awareness and experience in farming as well as their geographical location. Smallholder dairy farming systems in the highlands of Ethiopia and elsewhere in East Africa are classified as rural, peri-urban and urban systems. The major classification criterion is demographic; the peri-urbanand urban systems are located around and in towns and cities.