Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

The agricultural sector represents a dominant sector of the economy of northern Nigeria and provides the majority of employment and livelihoods. Agriculture has and according to most observers, will continue to have a central role to play in the development process of the African continent. As Nigeria’s population continues to grow, diet changes associated with rising incomes drive greater demand for food and other agricultural products, while global food systems are increasingly threatened by land degradation, climate change, and other stressors. Agriculture has significant linkages to poverty and hunger, nutrition and health, peace and security and preserving the world’s natural resources. Approaches with the potential for informing and guiding policy and practices are imperative. One of these approaches adopted by smallholder farmers in northern Nigeria is Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), which provides flexible, cost effective, and broadly applicable alternatives for building robust food systems on less inputs and reducing the impacts of climate change. Practices such as agro-forestry, buffer strips, on-site water conservation, use of native species, etc., have demonstrated that ecological based approaches can provide just one right framework for catalyzing transformative change on a larger scale. If the critical impacts of climate change are not addressed, the impact on ecosystem especially in Northern Nigeria will be numerous, placing added pressure on already limited land space and natural resources. This paper identifies the role of smallholder farmers and government as an institution in ecosystem services.