Adapting to Climate Change Mosaically: An Analysis of African Livestock Management by Agro-Ecological Zones

Author(s):  
S. Niggol Seo ◽  
Robert Mendelsohn ◽  
Ariel Dinar ◽  
Pradeep Kurukulasuriya

Abstract This paper examines African livestock management across Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZs) to learn how they would adapt to climate change in the coming century. We analyze farm level decisions to own livestock and to choose a primary livestock species using logit models with and without country fixed effects or AEZ fixed effects. With a hot dry scenario, the results indicate that livestock ownership will increase slightly across all of Africa, but especially in West Africa and high elevation AEZs. Dairy cattle will decrease in semi-arid regions, sheep will increase in lowlands, and rearing chickens will increase at high elevations. On the other hand, if climate becomes wetter, livestock ownership will fall dramatically in lowlands and high elevation moist AEZs. Beef cattle will increase and sheep will fall in dry AEZs, dairy cattle will fall precipitously and goats will rise in moist AEZs, and chickens will increase at high elevations but fall at mid elevations. Therefore, adaptation measures should be tailored to a specific AEZ.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yimer Mohammed ◽  
Kindie Tesfaye ◽  
Menfese Tadesse ◽  
Fantaw Yimer

Abstract Background: Climate change and variability has been significantly affecting the Ethiopian agricultural production and thereby smallholder farmers livelihoods. The level of vulnerability varied across agro-ecological zones (AEZs). Identification of difference in the level of vulnerability of a system is important in selecting appropriate and effective adaption options to climate change. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the level of vulnerability of agricultural communities to climate change and variability at micro-scale level in five agro-ecological zones (AEZs) of south Wollo, north east highlands of Ethiopia. Data was collected from a representative of 502 sample households from five AEZs through multi stage random sampling methods. Focus group discussion and key informant interviews were also carried out to supplement and substantiate the quantitative data. The indicator based approach was used to empirically calculate vulnerability. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to give weight for indicators and generate index of vulnerability contributing factors. Results: The results showed that each of the vulnerability contributing factors (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) varied across the AEZs. M3, SM2 and SM3 are the most exposed AEZs but having a relatively better adaptive capacity whereas M1, M2 and M3 are the most sensitive AEZs with relatively low adaptive capacity to climate variability and change. Overall, SM2 is the most vulnerable AEZ which exhibited high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity followed by M1. Conclusions: The study explored sources and levels of vulnerability to each agro-ecology. Since the study is conducted at micro-scale level, it helps decision makers and development partners to have context-specific understanding of the impact of climate change and variability and design appropriate adaptation measures to address the specific situations.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Nasser Baco

Previous studies suggested that maize is set to become a cash crop while ensuring food security better than any other crop. However, climate change has become one of the key production constraints that are now hampering and threatening the sustainability of maize production systems. We conducted a study to better understand changes here defined as adaptations made by smallholder farmers to ensure food security and improve income through maize production in a climate change context. Our results show that maize farmers in northern Benin mainly rely on traditional seeds. Drought as abiotic stress is perceived by farmers in many agro-ecological zones as a disruptive factor for crop production, including maize. When drought is associated with pest damages, both the quantity (i.e. yield) and the quality (i.e. attributes) of products/harvests are negatively affected. The adverse effects of drought continue to reduce production in different agro-ecological zones of the country, because of the lack of widespread adoption of tolerant varieties. The study suggests actions towards the production of drought-tolerant maize seeds, a promotion of seed companies, the organization of actors and value chains. Apart from climate change, the promotion of value chains is also emerging as one of the important aspects to take into account to sustain maize production in Benin.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-24
Author(s):  
Imran Shaukat ◽  
Hafiz Ihsan -ul-Haq ◽  
Hafiz M. Safdar ◽  
Rao Husnain Arshad

The problem of climate change has become very strongly during last two decades on global scale in view of the projected consequences on the environment of unguarded states. Gradually rising temperature and its effects on the crops here and rainfall are obvious in many areas around the world. Climate change related to natural and anthropogenic processes in Pakistan is the major source of study in this report. The impacts of these climate changes appear to be additional component of the large number of existing water related problems in every station of Pakistan. The objective of this report is to analyze the global warming effect on CWR. For this purpose, we made seven scenarios So, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6. From So-S3 crop water requirement increases in all regions but from S4-S6 crop water requirement remains same. For this purpose we selected different cities from agro ecological stations to check the effect of climate change on CWR. Faisalabad, Gupis, Jacobabad, Kalat, Karachi, Multan, Nawabshah, Peshawar and Zhob are the regions selected for this research. Different scenarios have been made such that, in So scenario temperature remains same but from S1, S2 and S3 scenarios temperature is increases 1, 2 and 3 degree centigrade respectively. While, in S4, S5 and S6 scenarios precipitation increases or decreases according to the climatic changes of that area (So, S1, S2, S3, ) and then we increase or decrease the precipitation rate by 5%, 10% and 15% (S4, S5, S6) in accordance with the zone. From result it is concluded that the crop water requirement in arid and in semi-arid is increasing annually on the other hand the total value of effective rainfall in Pakistan is decreasing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiang Tao ◽  
Kunming Cheng ◽  
Xinghan Li ◽  
Xingzhi Han ◽  
Jichao Wang ◽  
...  

Climate change poses different threats to animals across latitudes. Tropical species have been proposed to be more vulnerable to climate change. However, the responses of animals from tropical mountains to thermal variation and climate change have been scarcely studied. Here, we investigated the thermal biology traits of a tropical lizard (Takydromus kuehnei) distributed at high elevations (>950 m) and evaluated the vulnerabilities of T. kuehnei by thermal biology traits, thermal safety margin, and thermoregulatory effectiveness. The average active body temperatures of T. kuehnei in the field were 26.28°C and 30.65°C in April and June, respectively. The selected body temperature was 33.23°C, and the optimal temperature for locomotion was 30.60°C. The critical thermal minimum and critical thermal maximum temperatures were 4.79°C and 43.37°C, respectively. Accordingly, the thermal safety margin (1.23°C) and thermoregulatory effectiveness (1.23°C) predicted that T. kuehnei distributed in tropical mountains were not significantly depressed by environmental temperatures. This study implies that high-elevation species in tropical regions may not be severely threatened by ongoing climate change and highlights the importance of thermal biology traits in evaluating the vulnerability of species to climate change.


Author(s):  
Olufunmilayo Grace Adenaiye ◽  
Simeon Dada yomi Alfred ◽  
Oluwatosin Oluwasegun Fasina

This study examined farmers’ level of use of climate change adaptation strategies across selected agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. Edo and Ondo States were selected for the study with three major agro-ecological zones. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used. The correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between year of education and level of use of adaptation strategies (r = 0.15, P = 0.02). The result of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that significant differences existed in most of the adaptation strategies employed except planting different varieties (F = 1.672, P = 0.190), intercropping (F = 0.646, P = 0.525), crop rotation (F = 2.436, P = 0.090) and migration to different sites (F = 0.661, P = 0.517). The study recommended that the issue of climate change should not be taken lightly by all stakeholders as its effect differs among various agro-ecological zones.


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