Investigating the use of Weather and Climate Information Services by Aule Community via Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

CONTENT

1.0 Brief Introduction

2.0 Background information of Respondents

3.0 Human Activities

4.0 Discussion

5.0 Conclusion

6.0 Recommendation

1.0 Brief Introduction

It was a sunny day when I together with my team visited that small community called Aule via Akure, Akure south Local Government Area (L.G.A.). Akure is the capital city of Ondo state in Nigeria. Our group gathered together at Ilesha motor park popularly called Ilesha garage but surprisingly another group joined us that same hour and we went together but later got parted when we entered the main community.

The road was a little bit friendly for motorcycle at the onset of the journey but became worse as we were about to enter into the main community, erosion/run-off effect became pronounced and it has devastated the road in the form of pot-holes. The terrain was a little bit challenging to transportation.

Aule community had a good landscape as we saw lowlands and hills, rocks and fine sands, planted trees and shrubs, cultivable soils filled with banana and plantain especially at the front and backyard of different houses along the road. Planting of arable crops was also seen along the road.

Social amenities were fairly developed as we saw several NDDC projects along the road such as portable water supply and electricity.

The climate as witnessed here was fairly conducive to plant and animal raising but the effect of climate change as our core reason for visiting the community cannot be neglected, therefore, this report summarizes the effects of climate change over the years (precisely five years back) on agricultural production in Aule community, Akure south L.G.A., Akure, Ondo State.

2.0 Background information of Respondents

Some of our respondents were inborn resident of Aule community although their population was very low in the questionnaire administered. Most of the respondents came around to buy some residential plots of land but engage in farming with the remaining land space or some use the vacant land within their vicinity for farming i.e. those lands yet to be developed. Others were present as alien resident and likely to move out of the community in the future e.g the Igbos, Kogi (Ibira people) among others.

3.0 Human Activities

There were several human activities witnessed in the community from the interview conducted and from close observation. Most of the household heads engage in farming activities; planting and raising livestock. This was done to augment their meager/modest salary they received from their civil service work.

Nearly all household visited engage in backyard farming of Arable crops like cereals e.g Corn (Maize), Root and Tuber crops such as Cassava and Yam, Plantain and Banana. Some of the households raised fowl for consumption or for sale to improve the living standard of their family in terms of food and income.

Some respondents/interviewee have processing machines to process their produce to finish goods or even help others to process theirs with little amount of money.

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