A Critical Analysis of Climate Change Factors and its Projected Future Values in Delta State, Nigeria

The study focused on the critical analysis of climate change factors (temperature and rainfall) and its projected future values in the state. The main objective was to determine the trends of climate change factors (temperature and rainfall). And the specific objective was to determine the projected future trends of climate change factors in the state. Multistage sampling procedure was used in the random selection of states, local government, communities and rural households for the research study. Annual mean time series data of temperature and rainfall were collected from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). Data were also obtained from structure questionnaire survey. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, trend analysis and growth model. The study reveals that there were increasing trends of temperature values and decreasing rainfall values in the state. But their projected future values witnessed an increasing trend. The increasing trends in temperature values may lead to a situation were crops will be smothered by excessive heat thereby reducing food production in the state. The study therefore recommends that meteorological station units should be established in the rural farming households in the state where accessibility is extremely difficult. This will make available meteorological data (information) to the reach of the poor rural farming household for the attainment of food production.