Economic Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Production and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Date
2021-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Agriculture is the main livelihood in Sub-Saharan Africa, but land degradation due to improper agricultural practice and climate change seriously causing decline in yields. Climate change impact agricultural production and food security directly through temperature level and water availability and indirectly through its impact disease vectors and pests. This paper investigates the economic impact of climate change on agricultural production and food security in SSA. Country level panel data of SSA countries is used to analyze the impact of temperature and precipitation on agricultural production and food security. Temperature and precipitation deviations from long term average are used to analyze their impact on agricultural production and their coefficient of variations are used to analyze their impact on food security. The results from the analysis indicate that, slight deviation in temperature from its long term average impact agricultural production positively and significantly. However, its square(larger) deviation affects the production negatively if adaptation method not used. The use of pesticide included in production as adaptation method, reverses the negative impact of temperature on agricultural production. Both the slight and large deviation in precipitation impact agricultural production negatively. All agricultural production input variables has significant effect on agricultural production in the region. Coefficient of variation of both temperature and precipitation affect food security negatively. The climate variables impact food security directly through its impact on food production and indirectly through its impact on other food security indicators. To overcome its impacts the study suggest that; appropriate land use policy formulation, appropriate use of irrigation, planting agro-forest tree, investment on agricultural research and number of population must be maintained at optimum level.
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Keywords
Sub-Saharan Africa, Climate change, Agriculture Food security