Impact of climate change on the establishment of school farms in secondary schools in bayelsa state, Nigeria

The study was carried out to investigate the impact of climate change on the establishment of school farms in secondary schools in Bayelsa State. Two specific objectives, two research questions and two null hypotheses were tested in the study. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 105 public secondary school agricultural science teachers in Bayelsa state which comprised 66 male teachers and 39 female teachers. There was no sampling technique adopted for the study since the population was manageable. The researcher used the total population of 105 agricultural science teachers for the study purposely out of 217 public schools. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions while t-test was used for the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. A 19-impact item questionnaire tagged: “Impact of Climate Change on the Establishment of School Farms in Secondary School Questionnaire was developed by the researcher from literature reviewed. A five-point Likert scale of strongly agree (SA), agree (A), undecided (U), Disagree (DA) and strongly disagree (SD) with a numerical value of 5,4,3,2, and 1 respectively were used for data collection. Three experts from the Department of Agricultural Education, at Niger Delta University validated the instrument. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the instrument and a reliability coefficient of 0.85 was obtained. Findings revealed from the study indicatedtwo areas, namely the impact and the causes, on the establishment of school farms in secondary schools in Bayelsa State. It also revealed that nineteen (19) impact items were identified in the study as impact of climate change on the establishment of School farms in secondary schools in Bayelsa State. It was concluded that climate change poses significant threats to the establishment and sustainability of school farms in secondary schools in Bayelsa State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that Bayelsa State Ministry of Education should integrate climate change education into agricultural science curriculum. The Ministry of Agriculture should also promote agro forestry and conservation of agriculture practices.