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The majority of indigenous farmers in South Africa depend on rain-fed agricultural production for their livelihoods. Reliable indigenous weather forecasts are, therefore, required to guide rural farmers' decisions in regard to climate change. Much of the literature has shown that western scientific knowledge has failed at rural level. Indigenous knowledge has, for the past century assisted rural farmers' households in tackling the challenges of climate stressors and enhanced decision-making for adaptation. There is, therefore, much room for advancement in assessment processes to ensure adequate credit for indigenous knowledge systems. This study aimed to address two major knowledge gaps (i) to assess the relevance of indigenous knowledge in weather forecasts used by local farmers for climate adaptation, and (ii) examine farmers' perceptions in regard to climate change in Levubu and Nwanedi sites. Indigenous knowledge indicators used by farmers for weather forecasting, within their communities, were collected through questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions. The results revealed various forms of indigenous indicators used by local farmers for weather forecasting, such as, star and moon movement, appearance of red and black ants and mist-cover on mountains. A better knowledge of indigenous knowledge systems should play an important role in determining suitable adaptation strategies toward climate change. It is recommended, hence, that policy makers should enhance indigenous knowledge among local communities regarding the implications of climatic stressors to increase crop production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding climate variability and change is essential for designing adaptation policies and strategies to deal with the impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector. This Paper aims at assessing climate variability/change, the perception of rural farmers on climate change and preferred  adaptation strategies among the farmers in some selected farming communities in Nigeria. The study thus used both meteorology data and social survey, to examine variability/change in climate and factors determining the adaptation techniques adopts by rural farmers. The results show a relatively uniform temperatures and some seasonal variations in recent years (diurnal range of temperature is about 10 °C) but the rainfall shows much more seasonal variations. The rainfall has relatively undeviating trend from 1981 to 1996 but the trend appears to be upwards from the year 1997 to 2010. About 72.8% participants responded in the affirmative that climate is changing but there appears to be a significant relationship between the length of farming experiences and farmers’ perceptions of climate change adaptation techniques. Water-related (about 53%) and nutrient related (about 52%) technologies appear to have a high preference among the farmers. The major driver that determines farmers’ preference for climate change adaptation techniques is their incomes and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]