Leveraging climate-smart agriculture for improved resource-use efficiency: evidence from rice farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change ignorance can transform Nigerian farmers from producers into victims of preventable agricultural collapse. This study empirically investigates the determinants of intensity of climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAp) adoption and its effect on resource-use efficiency among rice farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. Cross-sectional survey data, elicited through a semi-structured questionnaire, were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The socioeconomic profile of the respondents reveals a middle-aged (≈52 years), large-member household (8), well-experienced (21 years), and 1.5-acre farmland rice community, with more secure land tenure (70%) but poorly trained on climate change. A negative binomial regression model shows that farmers’ intense perception of climate change, farm size, age, household size, marital status, farmers’ extension contacts, and cooperative participation drive the intensity of CSAp adoption. The Cobb–Douglas Stochastic Production Frontier Approach (SFA) reveals that larger farms experience mild diseconomies of scale and a pattern consistent with fertiliser-input over-use ( p < 0.01). Costs incurred on pest/disease management enhance production and reduce yield losses. Additionally, farm ownership structure, rice farming experience, and household size are efficiency frontier shifters, while farmers’ intensity of CSAp adoption improves technical efficiency and optimal resource utilization. Policies that institutionalise CSAp training, redirect fertilizer subsidies towards integrated pest management chemicals, and supports institutional reform/auditing should be underway.