Abstract:
The study focused on the impact of oil exploration on agricultural productivity in East Senatorial district of Bayelsa state. Five research questions were developed in conformity with the purpose of the study. Five null hypothesis of no significance difference were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance at relevant degrees of freedom. The study adopted survey research design. A structured questionnaire was generated from the literature reviewed and developed for the study. The instrument was face-validated by three experts. The Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the items. A reliability coefficient of 0. 91 was obtained. Data was collected from 500 farmers, 20 extension agents and 10 oil company officials. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while the t-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings from the study revealed that oil exploration has impacted negatively on crop productivity, livestock productivity, forest and aquatic organisms and therefore the strategies to cope with the impact of oil exploration on agriculture are trapping of gases, prevention of oil spillage or quick attention to oil spillage breakout, planning of community settlements away from oil wells, supply of non-toxic chemicals, help farmers to clear special land area for those involved in crop, and on land livestock farming, securing of important forest trees for use by communities or returns to be paid to farmers by oil drillers where their removal is unavoidable to accommodate oil wells. The study therefore recommended among others that community leaders should seek ways to compel the Federal government and oil companies to devote more resources to tackle environmental degradation.
