Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa

Dryland farmers in southern Africa operate under harsh conditions; infertile soils, erratic rainfall regimes, sub-optimal input levels etc. Crop yields have generally been low, negatively affecting food security and livelihoods. Climate change is anticipated to aggravate these already existing challenges. In the recent past, a wide range of studies has sought to understand how climate change will affect crop production. However, there are only few detailed localised studies that focus on understanding climate change impacts and adaptation under heterogeneous conditions that dryland farmers in southern Africa operate. This study sought to understand how climate change will affect food crop production in southern Africa's drylands and to provide insight on the potential of on-farm agronomic management strategies for adaptation. The study focused on three locations representing some of the agro-ecological conditions of southern Africa i.e. Big Bend in Swaziland (low altitude, hot and dry), Mohale's Hoek in Lesotho (high altitude, cool and wet and dry), and Lilongwe in Malawi (mid altitude, wet with moderate temperatures). The study was performed largely using a climate-crop model simulation approach supported by a review of similar approaches in the region, data collected from reported agricultural experimental trials, regional experts, downscaled climate projections (using up to 9 GCMs) and surveys.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Environmental and Geographical Science

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Zinyengere, Nkulumo

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Hewitson, Bruce
• Tadross, Mark
• Crespo, Olivier

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20846

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/20846