Climate Change Awareness, Environmental Education and Gender Role Burdens Among Rural Farmers of Northern Cross River State, Nigeria.

  • Eneji, Chris-Valentine Ogar Ph.D
  • Onnoghen, NkanuUsang
  • Acha, Joseph Odama
  • Eneyo, OkonEyo
Keywords: climate change awareness, Gender roles burden, Environmental Education, prevention, mitigation and adaptation to climate change

Abstract

This paper examined climate change awareness level among rural farmers of Northern Cross River State, Nigeria, the strategies adopted for mitigating, prevention and adaptation, gender role burden between men and women due to the effects of climate change and the roles Environmental Education can play in privation, mitigation and adaptation of farmers to climate change effects in  Northern Cross River State, Nigeria. Five questions guided the study. Two sets of instruments were used for data collection, a sample of 1258 respondents were selected for the study. Result analyzed using simple percentage and independent t-test revealed that rural farmers have some level of climate change awareness, 6 out of 9 strategies listed were being used by the rural farmers, women have increased workload burden than men, while Environmental Education can play very significant role in climate change prevention, mitigation and adaptation among rural farmers in Northern Cross River. Environmental Education should be carried to the rural setting to create the needed awareness, knowledge and skills to combat climate change effects.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Eneji, Chris-Valentine Ogar, Ph.D

Dept of Environmental Education, University of Calabar, PMB 1115, Calabar, Nigeria; E-Mail:vcogareneji@gmail.com, vcogareneji@unical.edu.ng Mobile No: +23480- 8504 0272

Onnoghen, NkanuUsang

Department of Environmental Education, University of Calabar, Nigeria

Acha, Joseph Odama

Dept. of Continuing Education and Development Studies, University of Calabar, Nigeria

Eneyo, OkonEyo

Department of Environmental Education, University of Calabar, Nigeria

References

Adger, W. N., J. Barnett, K. Brown, N. Marshall, and K. O’Brien. (2013). Cultural Dimensions
of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. Nature Climate Change 3(2): 112–117.

Akerlof, K. D. Berry, P., Leiserowitz, A., Roser-Renouf, C., Clarke, K.L., Rogaeva, A., et al.
(2010). Public perceptions of climate change as a human health risk: surveys of the United States, Canada and Malta. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 7:2559–2566.

Alan R. (2019). Climate change education and research: possibilities and potentials versus
problems and perils? Environmental Education Research, 25:6, 767-790,

Alston, M. and Whittenbury, K. (2012). Does climatic crisis in Australia’s food bowl create a
basis for change in agricultural gender relations? Agriculture and Human Values 30 (1):115–128.

Anderson, A. (2010). Combating Climate Change Through Quality Education. Washington, DC:
The Brookings Institution.

Anderson, A. (2012). Climate Change Education for Mitigation and Adaptation. Journal of
Education for Sustainable Development 6(2): 191–206. doi:10.1177/0973408212475199.

Armstrong, A. K., M. E. Krasny, and J. P. Schuldt. (2018). Communicating Climate Change: A
Guide for Educators. Ithaca, NY: Comstock Publishing Associates.

Arora-Jonsson, S. (2011). Virtue and vulnerability: discourses on women, gender and climate
change. Global Environmental Change 21 (2):744–751.

Badola, R., M.V. Ogra, and S.C. Barthwal. (2014). Ecodevelopment, gender, and empowerment:
Perspectives from India’s protected area communities. In Gender, development and transnational feminism: Engaging feminism and development, ed. A. Ober-hauser, and I. Johnston-Anumonwo, 200–233. New York: Routledge.

Bangay, C., and N. Blum. (2010). Education Responses to Climate Change and Quality: Two
Parts of the Same Agenda? International Journal of Educational Development 30(4): 359–450.

Barnett, J., & O’Neill, S.J. (2010). Maladaptation. Global Environ-mental Change 20: 11–13.

Bee, B., Biermann, M. and Tschakert, P. (2013). Gender, development and rights-based
approaches: lessons for climate change adaptation and adaptive social research. In: Alston, M., and Whittenbury, K. (eds) Research, action and policy: addressing the gendered impacts of climate change. New York: Springer, pp. 95–108.

Behrman, J.A., Bryan, E. & Goh, A. (2014). Gender, climate change, and group-based
approaches to adaptation. In Enhancing women’s assets to manage risk under climate change: Potential for group -based approaches, ed. C. Ringler, A.R., Quisumbing, E. Bryan, R. Meinzen-Dick, 3–8. Climate Change, Collective Action and Women’s Assets. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Bellon, M.R., Hodson, D. &Hellin. J. (2011). Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize
seed systems in Mexico to climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of United States of America

Below, T., Mutabazi, K., Kirschke, D., Franke, C., Sieber, S., Siebert, R. &Tscherning. T.
(2012). Can farmers’ adaptation to climate change be explained by socio-economic household-level variables? Global Environmental Change 22: 223–235.

Benavot, A., M. McKenzie, C. Chabbott, A. Smart, M. Sinclair, J. Bernard, J. H. Williams and
N. Chopin. (2019). The Transitions Project: Education for sustainable development and global citizenship, From pre-primary to secondary education. Technical Report (August). Paris: UNESCO.

Bentley, A. P. K., H. L. Petcovic, and D. P. Cassidy. (2019). Development and Validation of the
Anthropogenic Climate Change Dissenter Inventory. Environmental Education Research 25(6): 867–882.
Berger, P., N. Gerum, and M. Moon. (2015). Roll up Your Sleeves and Get at It!” Climate
Change Education in Teacher Education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education 20: 154–173

Bhardwaj, J. & Yadav, S.K. (2015). Drought stress tolerant Horse gram for sustainable
agriculture. In Sustainable Agriculture Review 15: 293–328.

Bhattarai, B., Beilin, R., & Ford, R. (2015). Gender, agrobiodiversity and climate change: A
study of adaptation practices in the Nepal Himalayan. World Development 70: 122–132

Bieler, A., R. Haluza-Delay, A. Dale, and M. McKenzie. (2018). A National Overview of
Climate Change Education Policy: Policy Coherence between Subnational Climate and Education Policies in Canada (K-12). Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 11(2): 63–85.

Binswanger-Mkhizer, H.P. & D’Souza, A. (2012). Structural transformation and agricultural
productivity in India. In Productivity growth in agriculture: An international perspective, ed. K. Fuglie, S.L. Wang, and E. Ball, 181–198. Oxford: CABI

Busch, K. C., and D. Roman. (2017). Fundamental Climate Literacy and the Promise of the Next
Generation Science Standards. Teaching and Learning About Climate Change: A Framework for Educators, edited by D. P. Shepardson, A. Roychoudhury, and A. S. Hirsch, 120–133. London: Routledge.

Busch, K. C., J. A. Henderson, and K. T. Stevenson. (2019). Broadening Epistemologies and
Methodologies in Climate Change Education Research. Environmental Education Research 25(6): 955–971.

Carr, E. R. (2011). Delivering development: globalization’s shoreline and the road to a
sustainable future. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Carr, E. R. (2013). Livelihoods as intimate government: reframing the logic of livelihoods for
development. Third World Quarterly 34 (1): 77–108.

Carr, E.D. & Thompson, M.C. (2014). Gender and Climate Change Adaptation in Agrarian
Settings: Current Thinking, New Directions, and Research Frontiers. Geography Compass; 8(3): 182–197,

Carr, E.R. & Thompson, M.C. (2014). Gender and climate change adaptation in agrarian
settings: Current thinking, new directions, and research frontiers. Geography Compass 8: 182–197.

Chant, S. (2010). Gendered poverty across space and time: introduction and overview. In:
Chant, S. (ed.) The international handbook of gender and poverty: concepts, research, policy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 1–26.

Chaudhury, M., et al. (2012). Participatory gender-sensitive approaches for addressing key
climate change-related research issues: evidence from Bangladesh, Ghana, and Uganda. Copenhagen: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.

Djoudi, H. and Brockhaus, M. (2011). Is adaptation to climate change gender neutral? Lessons
from communities dependent on livestock and forests in northern Mali. International Forestry Review 13 (2): 123–135.

Dominelli, L. (2013). Gendering climate change: implications for debates, policies and
practices. In: Alston, M., and Whittenbury, K. (eds) Research, action and policy: addressing the gendered impacts of climate change. NewYork: Springer, pp. 77–93.

Eneji, C.V.O., Williams J.J., Ekpo, C.G. and Isa, A. M., (2017). A Review of Global Warming
/Climate Change, Causes, Effects and Mitigations. The Environmental Studies Journal; 1(1): 28-44

FAO. (2011). The state of food and agriculture 2010–2011: women in agriculture closing the
gender gap for development. Rome. [Online]. Retrieved from: http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2050e/i2050e00.htm (Accessed 20th March, 2018).

Gruenewald, D.A. 2004. A Foucauldian analysis of environmental education: toward the socio
ecological challenge of the Earth Charter,Curriculum Inquiry 34(1): 71-107

Lorenzoni, I. & Pidgeon, N.F. (2006). Public views on climate change: European and USA
perspectives. Climatic Change. 77:73–95.

Macchi, M., Gurung, A. M., &Hoermann, B. (2015). Community perceptions and responses to
climate variability and change in the Himalayas. Climate and Development, 7: 414–425.

Manandhar, S., Vogt, D. S., Perret, S. R., & Kazama, F. (2011). Adapting cropping systems to
climate change in Nepal: A cross-regional study of farmers perception and practices. Regional Environmental Change, 11: 335 – 348.

Mcdowell, G., Ford, J. D., Lehner, B., Berrang-Ford, L., & Sherpa, A. (2013). Climate-related
hydrological change and human vulnerability in remote mountain regions: A case study from Khumbu, Nepal. Regional Environmental Change, 13: 299 – 310.

Opiyo, F., Wasonga, O.V., Nyangito, M.M., Mureithi, S.M., Obando, J., &Munang. R. (2015).
Determinants of perceptions of climate change and adaptation among Turkana pastoralists in northwest- ern Kenya. Climate and Development 8: 179–189.

Padmanabhan, M. (2011). Women and men as conservers, users and managers. A feminist
social–ecological approach. Journal of Socio-Economics 40: 968–976.

Panda, C., & Singh, S. (2016). Marginal and small farmers’ climate change perception and
adaptation. International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology, 9: 839–846.

Pandey, R., Kumar, P., Archie, K. M., Gupta, A. K., Joshi, P., Valente, D., &Petrosillo, I.
(2018). Climate change adaptation in the western-Himalayas: Household level perspectives on impacts and barriers. Ecological Indicators, 84: 27–37.

Pandey, S. S., Cockfield, G., &Maraseni, T. N. (2016). Assessing the roles of community
forestry in climate change mitigation and adaptation: A case study from Nepal. Forest Ecology & Management, 360: 400– 407.

Pandve, H.T., Chawla, P.S., Fernandez, K., Singru, S.A., Khismatrao, D. &Pawar, S. (2011).
Assessment of awareness regarding climate change in an urban community. Indian J. of Occup. Environ. Med, 15(3):109-112;

Panta, S. K., & Thapa, B. (2018). Entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment in gateway
communities of Bardia National Park, Nepal. Journal of Ecotourism, 17 :20 – 42.
Partoev, K. (2012). Preservation of agrobiodiversity and community adaptation to climate
change in mountain of Tajikistan. Oecologia Montana: International Journal of Mountain Ecology 21: 46–47

Ravera, F., Martin-Lopez, B., Pascual, U. &Druker, A. (2016). The diversity of gendered
adaptation strategies to climate change of Indian farmers: A feminist intersectional approach Ambio, 45(Suppl. 3):S335–S351

Rishi, P., Ompraksah, M.D. &Mudaliar R. (2011). Behavioural mapping of Indian urban \
settlements towards changing climate: an empirical study. Available from :http://climsec.prio.no/papers/norway%20full%20paperfinal.pdf .

Sujakhu, N. M., Ranjitkar, S., Niraula, R. R., Pokharel, B. K., Schmidt-Vogt, D., & Xu, J.
(2016). Farmers ’perceptions of and adaptations to changing climate in the Melamchi Valley of Nepal. Mountain Research and Development, 36:15–30.

Tamang, S., Paudel, K. P., & Shrestha, K. K. (2014). Feminization of agriculture and its
implications for food security in rural Nepal. Journal of Forest and Livelihood,12:20–32.

Tambo, J. A., & Abdoulaye, T. (2013). Smallholder farmers perceptions of and adaptations to
climate change in the Nigerian savanna. Regional Environmental Change, 13: 375 – 388.

Tembo, F. M., & Tadesse, T. (2018). Perceptions and choices of adaptation measures for climate
change among teff (Eragrostistef) farmers of Southeast Tigray, Ethiopia. Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, 10:11–19.

Wilk, J., Andersson, L., & Warburton, M. (2013). Adaptation to climate change and other
stressors among commercial and small-scale South African farmers. Regional Environmental Change, 13: 273 – 286.
Published
2021-01-01
How to Cite
Ogar, E., NkanuUsang, O., Odama, A. J., & OkonEyo, E. (2021). Climate Change Awareness, Environmental Education and Gender Role Burdens Among Rural Farmers of Northern Cross River State, Nigeria. GPH-International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research, 3(12), 01-26. Retrieved from https://gphjournal.org/index.php/ssh/article/view/351