Abstract

Dry season farming in Shiroro Dam (SD) project serves as a resilience to avert climate change, environmental, socio-economic and production shocks among rural households in Nigeria. The project is expected to have some impact on the livelihood of surrounding communities. The study assessed the effects of SD dry season farming on livelihood shocks among rural households in Niger state, Nigeria. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 165 farming households from 291 Shiroro Dam project participants. Descriptive statistics, net farm income, regression models and shock index were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that majority of SD farming household heads were male (90.9%), married (93.3%) with mean age (X???) and farming experience of 49 and 19 years respectively. The mean net farm income in dry season farming amounted to ?88,907.05 which account for 45.5% of total income realized from all livelihood activities throughout the year. The result of the coefficients of irrigation income (0.634), rain-fed income (0.006), fishery income (0.129) and agricultural wage labor (-0.050) were statistically significant factors influencing earning accrued to farming households. Result also revealed that socio-economic and institutional variables were major determinants in the decision and intensity to cope with production shocks. Thus, the study recommended farmers should strengthen their cooperative associations and collaborate with extension agents to harness production and marketing information, and other critical resources that will assist them in preventing and coping with production shocks, climate change and other environmental challenges.

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