Impact of Climate Change Adaptation on Household Food Security in Nigeria—A Difference-in-Difference Approach

Abstract

Studies have shown that climate change adaptation options (CCA) are implemented to buffer the unfavorable climatic changes in Nigeria causing a decline in food security. Against the background of measuring the impact of CCA options using cross-sectional data, this study assessed how CCA had affected food security using panel data on farming households from 2010–2016 obtained from Nigerian General Household Survey (GHS). Data were analyzed using the Panel probit model (PPM), Propensity Score Matching (PSM), and Difference-in-Difference (DID) regression. PPM showed that the probability of adopting CCA options increased with farm size (p < 0.01), extension contact (p < 0.01), and marital status (p < 0.01), but decreased with the age of the household head (p < 0.01). Credit facilities (p < 0.05), ownership of farmland (p < 0.01), household size (p < 0.01), years of schooling (p < 0.01), household asset (p < 0.01), and location (p < 0.05) also had a significant but mixed effect on CCA choices. PSM revealed that farming households that adopted CCA strategies had 9% higher food security levels than non-adopters. Furthermore, the result of the DID model revealed a significant positive effect of CCA on household food security (β = 5.93, p < 0.01). It was recommended that education and provision of quality advisory services to farmers is crucial to foster the implementation of CCA options.