Climate Change, Agricultural Livelihoods, and the Adaptive Role of Local Government in Kano State

This study analytically examines the adaptive role of local government in addressing climate change-induced threats to agricultural livelihoods in Kano State, North West Nigeria. Kano State faces increasing climate variability manifesting as erratic rainfall, prolonged dry seasons, land degradation, and diminishing water tables, all of which threaten the primarily agriculture-dependent rural economy. Local government authorities are constitutionally mandated to promote agriculture and manage the local environment, yet their adaptive governance capacity remains poorly understood and empirically underexplored. Guided by the Adaptive Governance Framework and the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, this research collects primary data from 250 respondents across ten rural local government areas including farmers, agricultural extension workers, local government environment and agriculture officers, and state agency representatives. Secondary data includes Nigerian Meteorological Agency climate data, Kano Agricultural Development Project reports, and academic literature on climate adaptation governance in semi-arid West Africa. Structural equation modeling and qualitative comparative analysis are employed. The study fills a gap by empirically testing local government adaptive capacity variables, including budget allocation for climate resilience, extension outreach frequency, and farmer early warning access, against household livelihood resilience indicators. Findings are expected to confirm that local government adaptive governance capacity is a significant moderating variable in the relationship between climate exposure and household livelihood losses. Keywords: Climate change, agricultural livelihoods, local government, adaptive governance, Kano State.