Assessment of Climate Change Copping Strategies among Backyard Snail Farmers in Owo Metropolis, Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess backyard snail farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics, awareness of change in climate and climate change copping strategies used in snailproduction management in the study area. The study employed a snowball sampling procedure to select 29 respondents for the study. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed with the aid of descriptive statistics such as frequency count, simple percentage, mean and standard deviation. Results of analysis revealed that 72.41%of the respondents were male. The mean age of the respondents was 50.55±5.1 years. Majority (40.3%) of the respondents had no formal education while the mean year of production experience was 4.97±3.1. Results further revealed that 89.66%and 93.10% of the respondents indicated awareness of increased weather temperature and sunshine hour. The climate change copping strategies used by the respondents were frequent water application, shade making and raising of varying species of snail. Snail producers should be encouraged to raise more than a species of snail as well as ensure dependable water source before commencing the enterprise.