Nigeria, March 14 -- Funmilayo Rasaki, 75, lives in a small brick house a few steps away from the seashore in Aiyetoro, a coastal community in the southern senatorial district of Ondo State. She had a small farm on which she cultivated crops adapted to the high tide of the sea in the area. She planted the crops in mounds that raised them above sea level and provided refuge for the crops. But all that stopped in 2019 when a sea surge swept through the community and left it in ruins.

"It became unsustainable. I couldn't continue. I had tried all the possible solutions to ensure that my farm survived, but the flooding that year was worse than anything we had seen, so I had no choice but to give it up," she said.

In Ondo State, communities ...