Highlights

• Maize farmers in Nigeria are seriously impacted by the negative impact of climate change over the years.

• Implementation of conservation agriculture practices can help mitigate the impact of climate change.

• Conservation agricultural practices aims to , improve agricultural productivity and rural livelihood.

• Combinations of conservation agriculture practices increases the yield and income of maize farmers.

Abstract

Conservation agricultural practices aims to concurrently improve climate resilience, improve agricultural productivity and rural livelihood. This study examined the determinants of adoption and implementation of alternative package of conservation agricultural practices using household level survey data in Nigeria. A Multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model was employed to estimate the factors influencing the adoption of conservation agricultural practices and productivities of adopters and non-adopters of alternative package of conservation agricultural practices. Significant variables such as age, gender, farming experience, farm size, formal education, access to extension services and membership in association were factors influencing the adoption and implementation of alternative package of conservation agricultural practices among the farmers. The result of the MESR-ATT indicates that adoption of alternative package of conservation agricultural practices to mitigate the negative impact of climate change improves the productivity of the farmers in the study area. To ensure effective implementation of alternative package of conservation agricultural practices among the farmers, the study suggest that stakeholders and government need to take the lead in the promotion of alternative package of conservation agricultural practices while creating enabling environment for effective participation of the other stakeholders.