Effect of oil-spill on farmland degradation and mitigation response employed by farmers in Niger Delta region of Nigeria

Abstract

This paper evaluated the mitigation practices employed by rural farmers in degraded farmlands in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The study focused on three states: Delta, Edo, and Ondo, which were purposively selected. Communities were chosen using a simple random sampling technique from a list of oil spill-affected areas documented by the Ecology Department of the Ministry of Environment, resulting in a sample size of 197 farmers. Data were collected using a structured and validated questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, such as frequency counts and percentage tables, were used to analyze the data, while a binary logistic regression model was applied to draw further conclusions. The results showed that 31% of the sampled farmers reported severe degradation of their farmlands due to oil spills, while another 31% perceived the degradation as moderately serious. The study identified leakages from vandalized oil pipelines and explosions at oil well terminal stations as the primary causes of oil spills, accounting for 20% and 19% respectively. The Logit Regression Model indicated that off-farm employment opportunities, compensations to farmers by government intervention agencies and multinational oil companies, and farmers' cooperative societies were significant negative determinants of not employing mitigation practices, despite mitigating the effects of oil spills. The marginal effect analysis revealed that, on average, a 1 percent increase in the utilization of off-farm employment opportunities, compensation to farmers, access to cooperative societies, and implementation of various Niger Delta intervention programs decreased the probability of employing mitigation practices by 0.50%, 0.45%, 0.005%, and 0.72% respectively. The study recommended enhancing off-farm economic activities to supplement the meager income from degraded farmlands.