Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Smallholder Farmers on Corona Virus Pandemic in Nigeria

Abstract

Agriculture plays an essential role in the economy of Nigeria as it provides food for the entire population of a country and also provides raw materials for the non-agriculture sectors of the economy. Nigeria's agriculture is made up of a higher percentage of smallholder farmers who are often exposed to shocks and have less capacity to combat the impact and increase the rate of recovery due to shocks. Therefore, the strengths and weaknesses of farmers' knowledge systems are important in building a resilient agricultural sector to improve farmers' food security, and livelihoods and build resilient capacity toward pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic was a big threat to Nigeria's food security since the bulk of the food produced in Nigeria is by the smallholder farmers who are often vulnerable to shocks. The paper examined smallholder farmers' knowledge, attitude, and perception of the COVID-19 pandemic using descriptive statistics. A total of 400 smallholder farmers in the study area were interviewed about their knowledge and perception of the COVID-19 pandemic. The finding showed that 332 of the respondents were aware of the virus, 340 did not believe in the existence of the virus, 365 believed they cannot be infected by the virus, and 271 adhered to government-imposed measures on combating the virus. On the methods employed to mitigate the spread of the virus in the study area, 180% of the respondents observed the social distancing, 78% used hand sanitizer, 48% wore nose masks and 40% reduced farm visits.