Impact of Climate Change on Crop Yield and Food Accessibility in Sub-Saharan Africa -A Review

Abstract

Agriculture is of special concern as it is the primary source of food and is dependent on weather. The impact of climate change on agriculture is estimated to be large, even in the face of large doubts. It is one of the drivers of globalization, is a growing concern not only in the global scale but also in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper reviews numerous studies in the influence of climatic change on crop production and food accessibility in SSA. Reports have predicted that SSA is one of the regions that would have the most severe impacts of climatic change. The increasing climatic variability brought about by the increase in extreme weather events, global warming, seawater rise and deficit in rainfall would obviously have serious effects for food production and availability in the region. Thus, climate change has threatened the food security in SSA. The climatic change would significantly shake the livelihood patterns, the ability to access food and the socio-economic lives of the majority of the people in the region. Prediction models that we reviewed, in relation to impacts of climatic change on the food systems, showed consistent predictions of decrease in crop productivity, increase in land degradation, high food prices, and negative impacts on livelihoods, and increase malnourishment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to avert the trend which climatic change is reducing the entire SSA into through the adoption of robust adaptation strategies as a means of mitigating severe food insecurity across the entire region. This can help to mitigate the impacts of climate change on crop production and food security and thus, increase the capacity of the people to adapt. The feasible adaptation programs that could be adopted include improvement in agricultural land areas, crop productivity, cropping intensity, consumption and strengthening of all aspects of agriculture.

 Keywords: climate change; extreme weather events; food security; food accessibility; Sub‐ Saharan Africa.