- Yinkfu Randy Nkuh
- Geography Department, Faculty of Social and Management Science, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon
Globally, climate variability posed significant challenges on agricultural activities, particularly food crop production which is predominantly rainfed. However, farmers employ multiple adaptation strategies to cope with the challenges. Ndu Sub-Division remains a perfect example where food crop farmers practice adjustments in adversity of climate variability. The aim of the study was to examine the adaptation strategies of food crop farmers to climate variability in Ndu Sub-Division. The study was investigatory and explanatory in nature, adopting the mixed research design. Through the clustered random sampling technique, food crop farming communities were delimited, with 200 farmers selected and administered structured questionnaires. Enormous primary data were collected through interviews, interrogations, focus group discussions and direct field observations which were supplemented by secondary data sources such as published related articles, online and offline libraries, data bases, and magazines. Results showed that farmers mostly practice mixed cropping (68%), intercropping (22%) and rotation farming (10%) which have severely been affected by climate variability manifesting through late onset of rainfall (40%) increasing temperatures (32%), false start of rainfall (18%) and decline rainfall (10%). Empirical analysis of early growing season’s climate data revealed large seasonal Coefficient of variations for rainfall (39.4%) and temperature (32.4%), and low values of relative humidity (4.2%); indicating unprecedented climate variability trend. Such variability provokes agricultural pests, diseases, soil moisture, stunted growth of crops, which reduce crop quality and induces severe agricultural losses. Food crop farmers often practice irrigation (6%), application of gro-chemical and organic manure (28%), seed replanting (24.8%) and grow improve seed varieties (16.6%) as means of adaptation. Contrastingly, these practices often yield temporal success as they are affected by high poverty, increasing magnitude of climate variability, limited knowledge, inadequate extension services and limited inputs. This work draws conclusion that Ndu Sub-Division has been a “bread basket” to immediate and proximal regions of Cameroon, and recommends that, participatory, holistic and objective strategies and policies be implemented in order to revamp the state of food production in the area.
