Deforestation and Agricultural Activities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

The study is on deforestation and agricultural activities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The study specifically examine the relationship between deforestation and crop production, the relationship between deforestation and fish farming and the relationship between deforestation and livestock production in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Farmers in Bayelsa State were sampled for the study. The population comprised 3,399 farmers while a sample of 358 farmers determined with the use of Taro Yamane formula and selected using the purposive sampling techniques. A questionnaire titled the questionnaire is titled “Deforestation and Agricultural Activities Questionnaire” (DAAQ) was the instrument used for data collection while the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to determined the relationship and level of significance of the variables. The result indicated that deforestation and crop production had positive relationship and the relationship is significant while deforestation and fish farming had negative but significant relationship. Also, deforestation and livestock production were found to have negative but significant relationship. In view of the findings, it was recommended that resource capacity of the institutions to protect forest be strengthened to enable them function effectively and programmes to slow down the speed of deforestation should be revitalized with aim of curtailing the increasing rate of deforestation amongst others.