How has the climate affect farming in Africa?

How has the climate affect farming in Africa?

Climate-stressed African agriculture Changes in climate such as higher temperatures and reduced water supplies, along with other factors like biodiversity loss and ecosystems degradation, affect agriculture.

What are the factors that influence agriculture in West Africa?

Abstract. Agricultural intensification in West Africa is at an early stage and the process is taking place through various pathways. Population pressure and market access are generally considered as major factors driving intensification and crop-livestock interaction.

How did climate affect farming?

Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Higher temperatures eventually reduce yields of desirable crops while encouraging weed and pest proliferation. Changes in precipitation patterns increase the likelihood of short-run crop failures and long-run production declines.

Why is West Africa good for farming?

West African Agriculture is at a turning point. The combination of strong demand growth, sustained economic growth, higher global agricultural prices, and an improved policy environment has generated the most conducive conditions for Agricultural growth in over 30 years.

How is climate change affecting West Africa?

West Africa has been identified as a climate-change hotspot, with climate change likely to lessen crop yields and production, with resultant impacts on food security. Southern Africa will also be affected.

What climate zone is West Africa?

The Köppen-Geiger climate zones of West Africa (Kottek et al., 2006), which occur in latitudinal strata as shown in Figure 1 are:-the equatorial monsoon zone, equatorial winter zone, 5 arid steppe zone and arid desert zone.

What is West Africa climate?

Climate. West Africa has wet and dry seasons resulting from the interaction of two migrating air masses. The lowland climates of West Africa are characterized by uniformly high sunshine and high temperatures throughout the year; mean annual temperatures are usually above 18°C.

How does climate change affect agriculture in South Africa?

Agriculture in South Africa faces a variety of risks associated with climate change, such as changes in rain patterns, increased evaporation rates, higher temperatures, increased pests and diseases and changes in diseases and pest distribution ranges, reduced yields and spatial shift in optimum growing regions.

When did agriculture develop in West Africa?

The first efforts to domesticate plants in West Africa started slowly. Eventually, West Africans began to settle and grow their food full-time. From 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE, the practice of farming spread across West Africa. These early farmers grew millet and sorghum.

How does climate change affect agriculture in Zimbabwe?

Changes in climate have resulted in more arid environments for agricultural production, which has shifted Zimbabwe’s five main agro-ecological zones (or ‘natural regions’) (see Appendix 2 – Zimbabwe’s Agro-Ecological Zones). Rainfall patterns and crop production progressively deteriorate from Region I to V.

How is the climate and vegetation in West Africa?

Throughout West Africa, climate and vegetation are largely a function of latitude (Figure 4 ), so that vegetation zones stretch from east to west. As rainfall increases progressively southward from the Sahara there is a gradual transition between semidesert grassland, savanna grassland with low trees and shrubs]

What kind of Agriculture does West Africa have?

West African agriculture ranges from nomadic pastoralism in the far north to root-crop and tree-crop systems in the south. In general, the crop-producing areas are roughly horizontal belts following bioclimatic zones (Bossard, 2009).

How big is the average farm in West Africa?

West Africa is composed of a wide variety of ecosystems and an equally high number of food production systems. Agriculture is the basic driver of West Africa’s economy, on which the majority of people depend for their livelihood (Gyasi and Uitto, 1997). Most farms are small, typically 1 to 5 hectares.

Where did the expansion of Agriculture take place?

The core of agriculture expansion, however, occurred within the Sudanian zone where climate is more suited for a large variety of crops. From southwestern Senegal to southern Chad, cropland has expanded — replacing biodiverse savannas, woodlands, and gallery forests.