Social Impact of global Environmental Change on Farming Communities on the Ogoli River Bank in Otukpo Area of Benue State, Nigeria. ; Social Impact of global Environmental Change on Farming Communities on the Ogoli River Bank in Otukpo Area of Benue State, Nigeria.: New Methodologies and Interdisciplinary Approaches in Global Change Research (International Symposium, Porquerolles, France 2008).

Fonds audiovisuel du programme "ESCoM-AAR" (Equipe Sémiotique Cognitive et nouveaux Médias - Archives Audiovisuelles de la Recherche. Paris, France, 2000 - 2016). ; One of the manifestations of the global change in this study area is a marked reduction in the duration and amount of rainfall. This adversely affects the volume of the head waters that ultimately determine the volume of the Ogoli River which is used for irrigation. Consequently, food security and livelihood of the farming communities whose mode of agricultural production is rain-fed is adversely affected. Using Participatory Learning Action (PLA) technique involving three distinct groups of adult male, adult female and youth, the study seek to evaluate the coping mechanisms of these vulnerable group to draught and reduced volume of the Ogoli River occasioned by the global change. The result of the study showed that there are marked shortages in food production and the respondents are shifting from the cultivation of long duration crops like sorghum, rice, maize and yams that have good market potentials to the cultivation of short duration ‘hunger’crops like millet, acha (hungry rice) and bricklaying. The study further showed that land is intensely cropped in the study area and bricklaying activities are intense on the River bank, destroying the fragile ecosystem and the attendant’s environmental degradation of soil erosion. The study recommends that government should evolve policy measures to ameliorate the adverse effects of this phenomenon.