Changing Paradigms in Addressing Climate Shocks among Pastoralists and Women Farmers in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

African farmers and pastoralists practice rain-fed agriculture that predisposes them to natural hazards in the form of climate change impacts and shocks. ‘Shocks,’ by implication, already connote unexpectedness, high damage, vulnerability, and low resilience. Moreover, natural hazards have the potential to become disasters in the absence of mitigation measures. Climate-induced hazards have impacts on the livelihood of families linked with farming, while pastoralist women also suffer great losses given that they depend on the milk from husbands’ herds as their major source of sustenance. This chapter presupposes that the hazard was the Boko-Haram elements, while insurgency is the disaster waiting to occur in northern Nigeria. This has indeed happened, and Nigerians are now left to deal with the shocks. Women were more vulnerable because they were exposed to greater risks, and as such, they felt greater impacts. Hence, after the Boko Haram insurgency, the internally displaced camps (IDP) were filled with more women and children. This chapter will therefore explore how to strengthen the coping capacity of farmers, pastoralists, and women given the impacts of climate change.