Dynamics to the study of coping strategies of rural farm communities in the context of climate change and socioeconomic challenges: the Nigerian example

The issue of climate change is predicted to have undesirable consequence on agricultural production and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. This impact, however, is expected to vary spatially across and within countries in the region (and across socio-economic groups). Areas with high climatesensitive agricultural production systems due to their over reliance on rainfed subsistence agriculture have been identified as the most vulnerable to climate change. Most of these countries already battle with the issues of poverty, food insecurity, health, and other basic social needs. The compound effect of climate change is therefore deleterious to the growth of the economies in such countries placing them at the high end of the climate change vulnerability spectrum. The aim of this paper is to examine the climate change, socioeconomic vulnerabilities and coping strategies employed by farming communities in Nigerian rural farm families to alleviate the negative impact of potential challenges.