Unlocking sustainable agriculture: climate adaptation, opportunity costs, and net revenue for Nigeria cassava farmers

Abstract Climate change continues to affect food production and farmers incur additional costs to adopt appropriate adaptation strategies to combat its effects and attain food security. To enhance adaptive and sustainable coping strategies and food security, it is necessary to study the opportunity costs of implementing climate adaptations and how they influence the net revenue of farmers. Therefore, the study empirically investigates adaptation to climate change and the net revenue of cassava farmers in Southwest Nigeria. The primary data used for this study were collected through a well-structured questionnaire for 221 respondents. The analytical methods used were descriptive statistics, paired sample tests, and multiple regression. Analysis revealed that the majority (55%) of the sampled cassava farmers employed planting different varieties and using agrochemicals as their main adaptation strategies. The results revealed that insufficient funding and labour shortage were the main barriers to adaptation in the study area. The results of opportunity cost on net revenue and costs using paired samples test revealed that cassava farmers derived and perceived the utility and the net benefits using adaptation measures than when it is not used. The result of the regression showed that climate variables such as adaptation options, rainfall, and access to climate information are co-joint with socioeconomic and production factors to determine the average net revenue in the area. Therefore, the study suggests that the costs of adaptation resources should be subsidized by the government at affordable prices for the farmers.