scholarly journals Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Rainfed Farming Systems: A Modeling Framework for Scaling-Out Climate Smart Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
pp. 313-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berhanu F. Alemaw ◽  
Timothy Simalenga
2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 1585-1600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Serdeczny ◽  
Sophie Adams ◽  
Florent Baarsch ◽  
Dim Coumou ◽  
Alexander Robinson ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 2505-2517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Müller ◽  
Katharina Waha ◽  
Alberte Bondeau ◽  
Jens Heinke

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Tramberend ◽  
Günther Fischer ◽  
Harrij van Velthuizen

<p>Climate change threatens vulnerable communities in sub-Saharan Africa who face significant challenges for adaptation. Agriculture provides the livelihood for the majority of population. High-resolution assessments of the effects of climate change on crop production are urgently needed for targeted adaptation planning. In Ghana, next to food needs, agriculture plays an important role on international cocoa markets. To this end, we develop and apply a National Agro-Ecological Zoning system (NAEZ Ghana) to analyze the impacts of high-end (RCP8.5) global warming on agricultural production potentials until the end of this century. NAEZ Ghana uses an ensemble of the CORDEX Africa Regional Climate Model, a regional soil map, to assess development trends of crop production potentials for 19 main crops. Results highlight differential impacts across the country. Especially due to the significant increase in the number of days exceeding high-temperature thresholds, rain-fed production of several food and export crops could be reduced significantly compared to the historical 30-year average (1981-2010). Plantain production, an important food crop, could achieve under climate change less than half of its current potential already in the 2050s and less than 10% by the 2080s. Suitable areas for cocoa production decrease strongly resulting in only one third of production potential compared to today. Other crops with detrimental effects of climate change include oil palm, sugarcane, coffee, and rubber. Production of maize, sorghum, and millet cope well with a future warmer climate. The NAEZ Ghana database provides valuable high-resolution information to support agricultural sector development planning and climate change adaptation strategies. The expansion of irrigation development will play a central role in some areas. This requires further research on Ghana’s linkages between food, water, and energy, taking into account climate and socio-economic changes.</p>


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 457
Author(s):  
Michalia Sakellariou ◽  
Basil E. Psiloglou ◽  
Christos Giannakopoulos ◽  
Photini V. Mylona

Agriculture terraces constitute a significant element of the Mediterranean landscape, enabling crop production on steep slopes while protecting land from desertification. Despite their ecological and historical value, terrace cultivation is threatened by climate change leading to abandonment and further marginalization of arable land imposing serious environmental and community hazards. Re-cultivation of terraced landscapes could be an alternative strategy to mitigate the climate change impacts in areas of high vulnerability encouraging a sustainable agroecosystem to ensure food security, rural development and restrain land desertification. The article presents the case study of abandoned terrace re-cultivation in the Aegean Island of Andros, using a climate smart agriculture system, which involves the establishment of an extensive meteorological network to monitor the local climate and hydrometeorological forecasting. Along with terrace site mapping and soil profiling the perfomance of cereal and legume crops was assessed in a low-input agriculture system. The implementation of a land stewardship (LS) plan was indispensable to overcome mainly land fragmentation issues and to transfer know-how. It was found that climate data are key drivers for crop cultivation and production in the island rainfed farming system. The study revealed that terrace soil quality could be improved through cultivation to support food safety and stall land degradation. In line with global studies this research suggest that cultivation of marginal terraced land is timely through a climate smart agriculture system as a holistic approach to improve land quality and serve as means to combat climate change impacts. The study also discusses land management and policy approaches to address the issue of agricultural land abandonment and the benefits gained through cultivation to the local community, economy and environment protection and sustainability.


GeoJournal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
pp. 1553-1572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Wahab

Abstract The shortfalls in the quality, quantity, and reliability of agriculture performance data are neither new nor confined to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is, however, a more dire challenge given the overwhelming importance of agriculture in the economies of most countries in the region in terms of food security and poverty reduction. While farmers’ self-reported (SR) data on crop outputs and farm sizes remain popular variables for computing plot productivity and yields, especially in SSA, other methods such GPS measurement and remote sensing measurement of crop area, crop cuts (CC) as well as whole plot harvests have been touted as the gold standard methods for yield measurement. All these approaches to yield estimation are insufficient in capturing real agriculture productivity in rainfed farming systems due to the significant area loss that characterizes these farming systems in the course of each cropping season. This paper compares yield data of smallholder maize plots from two farming communities in the Eastern Region of Ghana based on farmer self-reported outputs and crop cuts, as well as GPS and aerial imagery measurement of plot area. The study finds a high level of agreement between GPS-measured plot area and that measured using remote sensing methods (R2 = 0.80) with the minor deviations between the two measures attributable to changes in farmers’ plans in the course of the season with regards to their cultivation extent. More interestingly, the study finds a substantial disparity between measured CC yields and SR yields; 2174 kg/ha for CC yields compared to 651 kg/ha for SR yields. The significant disparity between the two measures of yield is partly attributable to the significant intra-plot variability in crop performance leading to plot area loss in the course of the season. This area loss (ranging from 15 to 30% of the planted area) is usually not taken into account in current yield measurement approaches. Delineating the productive and planted-but-unproductive sections of plots has important implications not only for yield estimation methodologies but also for shedding more light on the factors underlying current poor yields and pathways to improving productivity on smallholder rainfed maize farms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 5942-5964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gatien N. Falconnier ◽  
Marc Corbeels ◽  
Kenneth J. Boote ◽  
François Affholder ◽  
Myriam Adam ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 480-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Jan Middendorf ◽  
P V Vara Prasad ◽  
Gary M Pierzynski

Abstract Addressing the complex issues related to climate change requires multiple innovative approaches to identify research priorities involving multidisciplinary research teams. Participatory approaches with a variety of perspectives were used to gain insights into critical issues such as defining and understanding sustainable intensification, climate smart agriculture, and soil fertility prioritization in sub-Saharan Africa. This analysis drew on the foundation principles of participatory research and fundamental facilitation skills, while grounded in scientific knowledge and understanding of these complex issues. This approach essentially incorporates the relevant principles of participatory learning and action, primarily designed for development projects, with a new set of players within the research and policy domain. The results of three case studies that utilized participatory techniques with a set of multidisciplinary research teams are presented. The case studies were: (i) Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) proposal development grounded in country-led and national priorities in Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Cambodia; (ii) climate smart agriculture and sustainable intensification assessment and priority setting in Rwanda; and (iii) soil fertility prioritization in sub-Saharan Africa. We discuss how the future directions of such initiatives were shaped for improved outcomes.


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