Effects of Climate Change on Cocoa Farmers' Production

Cocoa is predominantly produced in the rainforest region of the country, an area that is vulnerable to changes in climatic conditions. This study examined the vulnerability of cocoa farmers to changes in climatic conditions in Ekiti State. Data for the study were collected through the administration questionnaires; this was done purposively by selecting four local government areas that have the highest percentage of cocoa productions among the 16 local government areas in the study area. Questions were given to cocoa farmers on their vulnerability to climate changes and other socio-economic problems affecting their production. Findings in the study revealed that there are more households headed by male as compared to the female households. Household sizes are large with 42.05 percent of the household having 7-10 members. Majority of the farmers have no formal education, with 59-81 percent of the households, indicating that most of the cocoa farmers in the study area have no formal education. Distribution of the households by primary occupation showed that 80-37 percent of the households are predominantly cocoa farmers. Findings in the study further indicated that malaria is a major sickness which also negatively affects the production of cocoa among farmers in the study area, affecting about 66-36 percent of the households, this justified the claim that malaria is a major disease-affecting households in tropical Africa. The result of the probity regression analysis showed that, the higher the age of the farmers the less productive they are in cocoa production, because of their inactiveness, this justified the decline in cocoa production over years. The study showed that cocoa farmers are vulnerable to hunger and poverty due to excessive climate change that might come in form of flood, high temperature and heat which often affect the performance of cocoa plantations.