Environmental Hazard Effects on Agricultural Production among Rural Households in Imo State, Nigeria

TLDR: In this paper, the authors evaluated environmental hazard effects as a critical issue relating to agricultural production of rural households in Imo State, Nigeria and found that flood, oil pollution, erosion and wind storm were significant and negatively related to the agricultural production.

Abstract: This study evaluated environmental hazard effects as a critical issue relating to agricultural production of rural households in Imo State, Nigeria. Multi- staged purposive and random sampling techniques were used to choose the samples. The study determined the farming activities of the respondents, ascertained the respondents knowledge of the effects of environmental hazard on agricultural production among respondents and analysed the relationship between environmental hazard and agricultural production of respondents. Primary data collected from 116 respondents were used for the study. Data analysis was carried out with the use of descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Results from the study show that majority (76.54%) of the respondents were engaged in cassava production as their major cash crop. A mean score of 2.18 on a three point likert-liked scale showed that majority of the respondents were aware of the effects of environmental hazard on their agricultural production. Results from the regression analysis shows that flood, oil pollution, erosion and wind storm were significant and negatively related to the agricultural production. Oil explorations that go on in the rural areas should be adequately monitored to reduce its negative effect on the rural environment. It was therefore recommended that more efforts should be made to mitigate the effects of environmental hazard on agricultural production of rural dwellers. This could be achieved by providing agricultural insurance schemes for farmers, paying compensation to farmers over losses arising from environmental hazards.