Recent Climate Shocks in the Sahel: A Systematic Review

In Africa, the Sahel is increasingly susceptible to climate shocks such as droughts, sandstorms (winds), and floods. Through a systematic review this work tracks the frequency with which these shocks are reported in the literature during the period 1975–2020. This work examines trends to identify which shocks are most reported, documenting their spatial distribution and evaluating the impacts of climatic and non-climatic drivers. In general, 388 shocks were reported in 164 relevant peer review papers. Southern Niger recorded 15.97% of all the shocks while Ethiopia and Senegal recorded 11.85% and 10.85% respectively. Also, West African Sahel saw about 49.97% of all shocks followed by East African Sahel with 29.89% and Central African Sahel with 12.11%. Generally, droughts (n = 219), appear to be the most frequently reported shocks followed by floods (n = 123) and winds (n = 46). The 1975–1985 decade recorded the most shocks (n = 207), followed by the 1997–2007 decade which saw (n = 80) shocks while between 1986 and 1996 a total of 52 shocks were recorded. 52% of the shocks are driven by climatic factors while 47% are driven by non-climatic drivers

Recent Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in the Sahel: A Critical Review

Climate change adaptation continues to be central on the agenda of most African countries. Current understanding of the state of adaptation is limited in Africa. The Sahel is selected because of persistent declines in precipitation and rising temperatures. Here, we examine the status of adaptation actions across the Sahel by reviewing the primary peer review literature. A total of 70 peer review papers that document 414 discrete adaptations provide a snapshot of adaptations developed between 1975 and 2020. From a country-to-country perspective, Kenya has the highest number of reported adaptation actions (75 or 18.1%). From a regional standpoint, West Africa recorded about 261 or 18.1% of all adaptation actions reported. Income diversification of livelihoods, and water harnessing were reported as the most used adaptation actions in the Sahel. Based on categories, technically based adaptation actions are the most used options. The period 2008–2016 registered 65.2% of all adaptations. 98% of adaptation actions are reported to be driven by climate while non-climatic drivers account for 95% of adaptation actions. The findings presented here are proxies of climate change adaptation; some relevant information might be found in gray literature which not used because gray literature is less standardized because it is not subject to peer review

Recent Trends in the Yield-Nutrient-Water Nexus in Morocco

Climate change is impacting environmental systems including agriculture. In Morocco, declining precipitation and increasing temperatures are negatively impacting crop yields. Consequently, crop yields in Morocco are now dependent on nutrient and water management. Most studies have focused on experimentation through fertilizer application and irrigation without any attention to the intrinsic linear relationships that exist between crop yields, fertilizers, and agricultural water withdrawal. The time series agricultural water withdrawal data were collected from AQUASTAT for the period 1990-2022 while data on nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash fertilizers were collected from FAOSTAT. Yield data for maize, barley, sorghum, and wheat were also collected from FAOSTAT. The data were analyzed using two machine learning models fitted through multiple linear regression. The key results show that for the three fertilizers, phosphates tend to have the strongest impacts and cause changes in crop yield as seen in the context of wheat. When both fertilizers and agricultural water withdrawal are fitted against yield, agricultural water withdrawals tend to have a strong relationship with yields. This work has helped us to identify which crops and management options need to be valorized in terms of increased access to nutrients and water

Recent Patterns of Exposure, Sensitivity, and Adaptive Capacity of Selected Crops in Cameroon

In most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, precipitation is impacted by climate change. In some countries like Cameroon, it is still not clear how maize, millet and rice will respond to changes in growing season precipitation. This work examines the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of the above crops to droughts at both the national and sub-national scale. Crop yield data were culled from FAOSTAT while growing season precipitation data were culled from the database of UNDP/Oxford University and the climate portal of the World Bank. Adaptive capacity proxies (literacy, and poverty rate) were collected from KNOEMA and the African Development Bank. The analysis was performed using the vulnerability index equation. Nationally, millet has the lowest vulnerability and rice has the highest. At the sub-national scale, northern maize has the highest vulnerability followed by western highland rice. It is observed that when scales change, the crops that are vulnerable also change. However, at both levels vulnerability has an inverse relationship with adaptive capacity.</jats:p

Assessing the effectiveness of joint forest management in Southern Burkina Faso : A SWOT-AHP analysis

We analyzed the perceptions of resource persons from three stakeholder groups on the benefits, challenges and opportunities offered by joint forest management (JFM) in the Ziro province of Southern Burkina Faso. In other words, a strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) approach in combination with an analytic hierarchy process (AliP) was applied. Results reveal that resource persons of the three stakeholder groups perceive the positive aspects of JFM to outweigh the negative aspects. In addition, favorable institutional setup received the highest overall factor score for strength. Inadequate enforcement of the management plans is the weakness with the highest score and the overall priority score for weaknesses was highest for resource persons from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MESD). On the other hand, better community relations received the highest overall factor for opportunities while uncertainty in decision making at higher levels was perceived as the most important threat to JFM in the Ziro province of Southern Burkina Faso. Therefore, differences in views and addressing realities on the ground requires the participation of all stakeholders in the design, implementation and follow-up of JFM to arrive at a consensus that is capable of delivering the twin challenges of environmental protection and rural development.Peer reviewe

Recent Patterns of Exposure, Sensitivity, and Adaptive Capacity of Selected Crops in Cameroon

In most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, precipitation is impacted by climate change. In some countries like Cameroon, it is still not clear how maize, millet and rice will respond to changes in growing season precipitation. This work examines the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of the above crops to droughts at both the national and sub-national scale. Crop yield data were culled from FAOSTAT while growing season precipitation data were culled from the database of UNDP/Oxford University and the climate portal of the World Bank. Adaptive capacity proxies (literacy, and poverty rate) were collected from KNOEMA and the African Development Bank. The analysis was performed using the vulnerability index equation. Nationally, millet has the lowest vulnerability and rice has the highest. At the sub-national scale, northern maize has the highest vulnerability followed by western highland rice. It is observed that when scales change, the crops that are vulnerable also change. However, at both levels vulnerability has an inverse relationship with adaptive capacity

A new index on agricultural land greenhouse gas emissions in Africa

Africa emits the lowest amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the global GHG budget. However, the continent remains the most vulnerable continent to the effects of climate change. The agricultural sector in Africa is among the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. Also, as a dominant agricultural sector, African agriculture is increasingly contributing to climate change through GHG emissions. Research has so far focused on the effects of GHG emissions on the agricultural and other sectors with very little emphasis on monitoring and quantifying the spatial distribution of GHG emissions from agricultural land in Africa. This study develops a new index: African Agricultural Land Greenhouse Gas Index (AALGGI) that uses scores and specific scale ranges for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) to map the spatial variations in regional GHG emissions across Africa. The data for the three main GHGs (CO2, CH4, and N20) were downloaded from FAOSTAT. The data were analyzed through the newly developed African Agricultural Land Greenhouse Gas Index (AALGGI). This is an empirical index with scores ranging from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating higher levels of emissions. The results show that Southern and North African regions have the lowest amounts of agricultural land GHG emissions, with AALGGIs of 3.5 and 4.5, respectively. East Africa records the highest levels of GHG emissions, with an AALGGI of 8 followed by West Africa with an AALGGI of 7.5. With the continental mean or baseline AALGGI being 5.8, East and Middle Africa are above the mean AALGGI. These results underscore the fact that though Africa, in general, is not a heavy emitter of GHGs, African agricultural lands are increasingly emitting more GHGs into the global GHG budget. The low AALGGIs in the more developed parts of Africa such as Southern and North Africa are explained by their domination in other GHG emitting sectors such as industrialization and energy. The high rates of emissions in East Africa and Middle Africa are mainly linked to intensive traditional farming practices/processes and deforestation. These findings underscore the need to further leverage climate change mitigation actions and policy in Africa and most importantly the co-benefits of mitigation and adaptations in the most vulnerable regions