Paper short abstract:

The study assesses the adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Land Management (SALM) methodology as a rigid response to climate change risk in Nigeria. SALM methodology uses the RothC model to measure carbon sequestration by calculating the soil carbon stock changes of the project farms.

Paper long abstract:

Various coping strategies have been proposed and used in Africa to alleviate climate change risks. Some of these methods include the use of improved crop varieties, fertilizers, irrigation schemes and reliance on climate data. Majority of these methods are effective but weak, thus the need for more rigid coping methods. One of such rigid methods is the adoption of climate-smart agriculture; my study focuses on carbon sequestration. Although this is a highly contested coping method in Nigeria, it is highly reliable and effective. My study is assessing Sustainable Agricultural Land Management (SALM) methodology using RothC model to calculate the efficacy of climate-smart agriculture on ten selected small-scale farms (five control farms and five project farms) in the agricultural zone of Oke Ogun area of Oyo State, Nigeria. Activity Baseline and Monitoring Survey (ABMS) is being used to acquire data for a period of 3 years ending 2020. The results so far showed that after 2 years of SALM adoption, the project farms produced maize (6.5), soybeans (1.75), guinea corn (2.75), and tomatoes (4.25) tons/hectare/year respectively in 2019 compared to maize (3.1), soybeans (0.75), guinea corn (3.8) and tomatoes (1.65) tons/hectare/year respectively produced in 2017. Also, the project farms significantly increased their crop yields from the application of SALM methodology; RothC model showed that the modeled soil carbon stock changes increased significantly by 14%. The study is expedient for informed policy formation in the Nigerian agricultural sector.