Book Reviews: Climate Change and Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Both books are available as free downloads from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) website at: http://www.ifpri.org/publication/west-africanagriculture-and-climate-change. These volumes are primarily concerned with the potential impact of climate change on agriculture in West and Southern Africa, respectively, and how this may be minimized through careful planning based on accurate foresight analysis. A third volume, dealing with East Africa, is due to be published on 3rd December 2013 (also available from the IFPRI website [see above]; ISBN 978-0-89629-205-5). Climate change, it may be argued, is the most significant threat to agriculture and, therefore, food security, worldwide. Drought, one of the most important consequences of climate change, already places severe constraints on agricultural productivity throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries of the region the effects have already reached crisis point, notably in the Horn of Africa, to be dealt with in the third volume. The greenhouse effect, it is predicted, will raise temperatures yet further and this, together with other factors, will lead to longer and even more severe periods of drought, imposing ever-increasing pressures on the already scarce supplies of that most precious of all commodities in the region, fresh water (see Grayson, 2013 for an excellent recent analysis of the global situation). Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole is climatologically extremely diverse, however, and although drought is the most significant issue for many of its constituent nations, other predicted consequences of climate change are likely to be of overwhelming importance to the agricultural productivity of others, especially the likelihood of more extreme weather events in general, higher temperatures and increased variation in precipitation patterns in both wet and dry areas. All these, like drought, impact most severely on the poorest members of any society; in other words, those least able and least well equipped to adapt to them rapidly and effectively. The two books reviewed here, together with the as yet unpublished third volume, must therefore be seen as being of the very greatest relevance to all concerned with both food security and the alleviation of poverty south of the Sahara. Given the current debates surrounding climate change issues, it is important to establish first the credentials of The International Food Policy Research, Institute (IFPRI), the organization responsible for the volumes. The institute is a member of the CGIAR (formerly Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) Consortium. It was established in 1975 to ‘identify and analyze alternative national and international 1 Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. 2 Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 3 Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan (analyses of the data were completed before South Sudan separated from Sudan), Tanzania and Uganda.