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CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE ADOPTION: ECONOMIC BENEFITS AND BARRIERS FOR MAIZE FARMERS IN NIGERIA AMID 2025 CLIMATE PROJECTIONS
Abstract
This study investigates the adoption dynamics of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices among Nigerian maize farmers, with particular attention to their economic viability under projected 2025 climate conditions. Drawing on a sample of 1,370 maize-farming households across Nigeria’s northern and southwestern regions areas characterized by high climate vulnerability the research employs a multivariate probit model to analyze adoption determinants alongside cost-benefit analysis. The findings demonstrate that CSA practices, including drought-tolerant varieties and conservation agriculture, yield substantial benefits, enhancing productivity by 20–40% and improving economic returns with benefit-cost ratios frequently exceeding 1.5. Despite these advantages, adoption rates remain constrained by structural barriers, notably financial constraints affecting over half of farmers, elevated input costs, insufficient extension support, and knowledge deficits. The study underscores the necessity of targeted interventions such as input subsidies, enhanced extension services tailored to vulnerable populations, and policy frameworks incorporating meteorological forecasts. Ultimately, while CSA presents a viable pathway for sustainable maize production, overcoming existing adoption barriers through inclusive strategies is imperative for ensuring food security amidst escalating climate risks.
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Nigeria ranks as Africa’s largest maize producer, with the crop contributing significantly to food security, livelihoods, and agricultural GDP. However, climate change poses severe threats, including rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and frequent extremes like droughts and floods. According to the Nigerian Meteorological Agency’s 2025 Seasonal Climate Prediction, delayed rainfall onset in eight northern states, including Plateau, Kaduna, and Niger, contrasts with early rainfall events in southern and coastal areas, while many regions experience generally normal to below-normal annual rainfall. These shifting patterns exacerbate vulnerabilities for rain-fed maize farming, potentially reducing yields without adaptation measures.
Climate-smart agriculture, as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2013, encompasses approaches that simultaneously increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce emissions. Solutions such as drought-tolerant maize varieties, conservation tillage, crop rotation, and improved soil management demonstrate considerable promise. Recent research indicates that adopting these integrated practices can significantly boost maize yields; for example, implementation in Southwest Nigeria resulted in yield increases of up to 80 kg per hectare while reducing climate vulnerability. In northern Nigeria, the introduction of drought-tolerant maize varieties combined with complementary techniques like intercropping and residue incorporation has shown measurable improvements in both productivity and farmer welfare.
Economic analyses confirm the viability of climate-smart agricultural approaches. Studies across sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, highlight favorable net present values and internal rates of return for prioritized climate-smart practices, particularly improved seeds and good agricultural practices within maize production systems. Nigerian farmers employing bundled climate-smart technologies frequently achieve benefit-cost ratios exceeding 1.9, translating to enhanced income stability and climate resilience. Systematic review evidence consistently demonstrates that climate-smart agriculture strengthens smallholder maize farmers’ livelihoods through increased productivity and improved food security.
Despite these benefits, significant barriers hinder widespread adoption. Smallholder farmers face multiple interrelated challenges, including financial constraints, limited access to extension services, labor shortages, and information gaps. Research indicates that socioeconomic factors such as gender, education level, and farm size significantly influence adoption rates, creating complex barriers to progress. With climate projections indicating increasing risks through 2025 and beyond, rigorous evaluation of climate-smart agriculture’s economic viability remains crucial for building resilient maize production systems.
Emerging research underscores persistent adoption challenges that necessitate targeted policy interventions. Smallholder maize farmers encounter interconnected obstacles including financial limitations, insufficient technical support, and prohibitive implementation costs, particularly in northern Nigeria’s dryland regions. Compounding factors such as restricted fertilizer access and knowledge deficits further constrain adoption, with studies indicating only modest uptake of multiple climate-smart practices. Multivariate analyses of plot-level data reveal that demographic and land tenure factors substantially shape adoption patterns. While certain integrated approaches demonstrate clear profitability in cost-benefit assessments, climate risk uncertainties continue to discourage farmer participation. Projected increases in extreme weather events heighten the urgency for implementing resilient technologies, though realizing their potential requires complementary policy support. This context frames the critical need to assess how climate-smart agriculture can offset economic losses from intensifying climate variability, informed by empirical evidence from recent agricultural interventions.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Despite CSA’s potential, Nigerian maize farmers demonstrate persistently low adoption rates, worsening vulnerabilities given the 2025 climate projections by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency predicting delayed rainfall and extreme weather events. This situation contributes to declining yields that jeopardize food security, with Agbarevo and Ijah (2025) estimating 10–20% reductions unless adaptation measures are implemented. Financial barriers, including high upfront costs, limited credit access, and insufficient extension services as highlighted by Darko and Akoto (2025) and Zakari et al. (2025) continue to constrain farmer incomes and hinder uptake. Additionally, Ogwu (2025) notes that the lack of context-specific community-based awareness initiatives leaves farmers uninformed about long-term advantages such as enhanced benefit-cost ratios from drought-tolerant maize varieties. This knowledge deficit ultimately weakens resilience-building efforts in the face of intensifying climate risks.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
- To assess the economic benefits of CSA adoption for maize farmers in Nigeria, including yield gains, income enhancement, and resilience under 2025 projections.
- To identify key barriers to CSA adoption among smallholder maize farmers, such as financial, informational, and institutional constraints.
- To evaluate cost-benefit analyses of resilient practices (e.g., DTMVs, conservation agriculture) in response to changing weather patterns.
1.4 Research Questions
The study seeks to answer the following research questions:
- What are the economic benefits derived from adopting climate-smart agriculture practices among maize farmers in Nigeria amid 2025 climate projections?
- What are the major barriers hindering the adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices by smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria?
- How do cost-benefit analyses demonstrate the viability of resilient farming practices in responding to changing weather patterns projected for 2025?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This research advances sustainable agriculture by generating empirical evidence with implications for policymaking, agricultural extension services, and farming communities. The study elucidates scalable approaches to climate-smart agriculture that could contribute to Nigeria’s climate adaptation strategies and support progress toward Sustainable Development Goals related to food security and climate mitigation. The findings provide maize cultivators with economically viable cultivation techniques while refining methodological approaches to cost-benefit analysis in contexts of uncertainty for the research community.
1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study
The study focuses on maize farmers in northern and central Nigeria, using secondary data from 2024–2025 surveys. Limitations include reliance on self-reported data, which may introduce bias, and the exclusion of southern regions less affected by drought. Future research could expand to other crops and longitudinal impacts.
1.7 Definition of Terms
Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA): An integrated approach to farming that sustainably increases productivity and income, adapts and builds resilience to climate change, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions where possible (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2013).
Adoption: The decision by maize farmers to implement and continue using one or more CSA practices (e.g., drought-tolerant varieties, conservation tillage, or integrated soil management) on their farms.
Economic Benefits: Measurable gains from CSA adoption, including increased maize yields, higher net farm income, improved benefit-cost ratios, and enhanced household resilience to climate shocks.
Barriers: Constraints limiting CSA uptake, categorized as financial (e.g., high input costs, lack of credit), informational (e.g., limited knowledge or extension services), institutional (e.g., policy gaps), and socioeconomic (e.g., gender, education, farm size).
Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA): A systematic economic evaluation comparing the costs (initial investments, labor, inputs) and benefits (yield gains, income increases) of CSA practices over time, often expressed through metrics like benefit-cost ratio (BCR), net present value (NPV), and internal rate of return (IRR).
Maize Farmers: Smallholder farmers in Nigeria whose primary crop is maize, typically operating on less than 5 hectares in rain-fed systems.
References
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Darko, A. D., & Akoto, L. (2025). Cost benefit analysis of agricultural interventions to enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers. Comprehensive Research Institute Publications.
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Food and Agriculture Organization. (2013). Climate-smart agriculture sourcebook. FAO.
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Nigerian Meteorological Agency. (2025). 2025 Seasonal Climate Prediction. NiMet.
Ogwu, M. C. (2025). Economic benefit analysis of IR maize technology over local varieties in Nigeria. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 10(1), 12–25.
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