Informal Sources of Financing Climate Change Adaptation amongst Crop Farmers in Nigeria

The study examined the sources of informal finance in aiding climate change adaptation in South eastern Nigeria. Random sampling was adopted in the selection of 6 out of the 9 communities in the study area. From each of these selected communities, 10 crop farmers were randomly selected giving a total number of 60 respondents. Descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequency, as well as multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis. The socio-economic characteristics showed that the respondents who made use of informal financial sources were predominantly male, and had farming as their primary occupation. The regression results showed that age and level of education of the respondents does not have significant effect on the amount of informal finance. Whereas, gender, marital status; farming experience; and annual farming income have a significant effect on secured amount of informal finance. Inadequacy of the informal lenders, insufficiency of the credit, poor accounting knowledge of money lenders, inconsistency and unreliability of the informal credit are the main constraints of informal finance in the study area and hence negatively influence the adaptation measures on climate change.