Climate Change and African Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities (original) (raw)
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Climate Change: Threat to Agricultural System and Food Security in Africa
Global Scientific Research in Environmental Science, 2021
Climate change is unequivocal and nothing hides itself from its negative repercussions. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa will continue to be impacted due to their low adaptive capacities and geographic position. Unfavourable weather trends coupled with climatic variations will have adverse effect on agricultural sector which is the main source of livelihood to rural households on the continent. This literature review article assessed the impacts of climate change on agriculture and food security in Africa. The lives of several in Africa cling on agriculture as it supports majority of the population. However, since over 90 percent of agriculture system in the region depends on rainfall, livelihoods of the citizens on the continent have been hit hard due to rising temperature, erratic rainfall and extreme weather conditions.
Climate Change: Causes and Effects on African Agriculture
Climate is the primary important factor for agricultural production. Science has made enormous efforts in understanding climate change and its causes, and is helping to develop a strong understanding of the current and potential impacts that will affect people today and in the future. This understanding is crucial because it allows decision makers to place climate change in the context of other large challenges facing Africa and the world. This study reviews the causes and effects of climate change on agriculture in Africa. The main interests are findings concerning the present and potential impacts to agricultural systems, role of human adaptations in responding to climate change, and potential changes in patterns of food production.
Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture across Africa
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, 2017
Confidence in the projected impacts of climate change on agricultural systems has increased substantially since the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. In Africa, much work has gone into downscaling global climate models to understand regional impacts, but there remains a dearth of local level understanding of impacts and communities’ capacity to adapt. It is well understood that Africa is vulnerable to climate change, not only because of its high exposure to climate change, but also because many African communities lack the capacity to respond or adapt to the impacts of climate change. Warming trends have already become evident across the continent, and it is likely that the continent’s 2000 mean annual temperature change will exceed +2°C by 2100. Added to this warming trend, changes in precipitation patterns are also of concern: Even if rainfall remains constant, due to increasing temperatures, existing water stress will be amplified, putting even more ...
Climate change risks for African agriculture
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment of major risks for African agriculture and food security caused by climate change during coming decades is confirmed by a review of more recent climate change impact assessments (14 quantitative, six qualitative). Projected impacts relative to current production levels range from −100% to +168% in econometric, from −84% to +62% in process-based, and from −57% to +30% in statistical assessments. Despite large uncertainty, there are several robust conclusions from published literature for policy makers and research agendas: agriculture everywhere in Africa runs some risk to be negatively affected by climate change; existing cropping systems and infrastructure will have to change to meet future demand. With respect to growing population and the threat of negative climate change impacts, science will now have to show if and how agricultural production in Africa can be significantly improved.
2011
Information at local scale on impacts of climate variability and climate change are crucial for planning of adaptation strategies and practices in agriculture. There is a diversity of approaches and methods available for understanding the impacts of climate change on agriculture. In general, climate change impact assessments primarily build on the data availability of crop production/yield records, observed climate data, climate change scenarios, hydrological, soil and socio-economic data. In addition, these assessments must be based on an understanding of what future climate will look like and how its variability will affect the biophysical and socio-economic systems associated with agriculture. This paper briefly presents the results of previous assessments for Africa and seeks to identify future priorities with respect to data, methods and tools for climate change impact assessment in agriculture.
Climate Change Impact Pathways on Agricultural Productivity in Africa: A Review
This paper reviews literature on the impact of climate change on agriculture, highlighting on gender and adaptation issues. The study looked at climate change impact pathways on the three main sectors of agriculture including crops, livestock and fisheries. The major findings were that crop production has been severely hampered through rising temperatures, irregular rainfall and increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to crop failure in some cases, low production and productivity levels. In livestock, the effect of unfavourable thermal conditions leads to compromised meat quality and reduced production potential. Women were also seen to suffer the most in the event of adverse changes in climate by their disposition as the primary caregivers in the home. These impacts among others could render economies efforts towards achieving their development agenda a mirage. The study recommends among others holistic policies that will support the fight against climate change.
In the literature, a lot of information is available about climate change perceptions and impacts in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is limited attention in the region to emerging initiatives, technologies and policies that are tailored to building the adaptive capacity of agricultural systems to climate change and variability. In this paper, we discuss the prospects for climate-smart agriculture technologies and enabling policies in dealing with climate change and variability at different sub-regional levels of sub-Saharan Africa to sustain farm productivity and livelihoods of agrarian communities. The review provides substantial information suggesting that without appropriate interventions, climate change and variability will affect agricultural yields, food security and add to the presently unaceptable levels of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Although some of them were already existing, the past decades have seen the development and promotion of climate-smart agriculture innovations such as the use of high yielding drought tolerant crop varieties, climate information services, agricultural insurance, agroforestry, water harvesting techniques, integrated soil fertility management practices, etc. In the context of climate change, this appears as a stepping up approach to sustainably improving farm productivity, rural livelihoods and adaptive capacity of farmers and production systems while contributing to mitigation. The development of regional, sub-regional and national climate change policies and plans targeted at mitigating climate change and improving adaptive capacity of the African people have also been developed to enable mainstreaming of climate-smart agriculture into agricultural development plans. Financial commitments from governments and development agencies will be crucial for improving large scale adoption of climate-smart agriculture.
Climate change and its effects in Africa: can agroecology rescue agriculture?
Climate change has been topical over the last decade as the world grapples with the issues of food insecurity due to changes in seasons and crop patterns, melting of glaciers as temperature increases (global warming) and consequently, rising sea levels. As debates on negative effects of climate change intensify, it has become apparent that human insecurity will become the norm if adaptation and mitigation strategies are not implemented. Climate change is already happening and represents an additional environmental, social, economic and political threat facing Africa at continental, national and individual household levels. Agroecology and other forms of ecological farming methods are key to ensuring both social stability and environmental sustainability in the face of climate change. As the recently published Oxfam brief (April 2014), rightly notes that agro-ecology is foundational to building a new agricultural future for the people and the planet. The bulk of the African economies are agro-based, reviving agriculture would set the wheels of home market development into motion once again, and bring prosperity for the majority poor people.