The Impacts of Climatic Change and Options for Adaptation on Some Subsistence Crops in the Sudano-Sahelian Zone of Cameroon

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world that has become poorer in the last generation. The climate change is expected to add significantly to the development challenges of ensuring food security and poverty reduction. The majority of these countries are dependent on rain-fed agriculture (96 %) for their subsistence, thereby making them highly vulnerable to recent climatic change. Adaptation to climate change in the crop production sector is therefore very imperative in providing food security and protecting the livelihood of rural poor smallholder farmers and communities. This study used both the top-down and the bottom-up approach in analysing the sensitivity and vulnerability of subsistence farmers in the Sudano-Sahel of Cameroon on climatic change. Analyses of agricultural droughts using the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) and statistical models were used in investigating the impacts of recent climatic changes on two staple crops, millet Pennisetum glaucum L. and sorghum Sorghum bicolor L. (Moench). Household questionnaires and interviews were also conducted and subsistence farmers’ perceptions on climatic change were then analyzed. The findings showed that local subsistence farming communities perceived changes in rainfall and its frequency and rise in temperature. The results indicated that climatic trends appear to be responsible for between 12 and 24 % of the yield variation for both millet and sorghum, with maximum temperature at the growing season being the dominant influence. The droughts were observed in up to about 9 % of the years analyzed. Pertaining to climatic variability and change adaptation, subsistence farmers have changed their planting dates, crop varieties as well as switched from crops to livestock and off-farming activities among many others. The result further highlighted the lack of money, poor access to climate information, the encroachment of the desert and the shortage of man power as some of the factors hindering subsistence farmers’ ability to climate change adaptation.