Climatic Variation: Implications on Sustainable Rice Production in Igbemo - Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Rice constitutes the bulk of an average Nigerian’s calorie intake. This study assessed how climate change brings about some adverse conditions on rice production with specific focus on increased temperature levels and rainfall anomalies in Igbemo-Ekiti, Nigeria. Primary data through questionnaire administration elicited background information of farmers who involve in rice farming in the study area; and data on climatic variables such as rainfall, temperature and humidity; and rice yield from 1997-2012 were collected and treated using descriptive and correlation analysis. Results show that; majority of farmers (80.8%) engaged fully in farming; rainfall is positively correlated with temperature (0.39) but has negative correlation with rice yield (-0.38) which indicates that rice production in this area does not absolutely rely on rainfed but supplementary water from irrigation; that high temperature (340C) recorded in 1997 was responsible for the low rice production (55,000t) in the year; and while reduced level of temperature (320C) induced high yield of rice (95,000t) recorded in 2012. It is therefore recommended that farmers in the study area should embark on intensive farming that is capable of regulating activities of climatic variables towards continuous farming system.