The relationship between El Niño Southern Oscillations and cereal production in Sahel

Abstract

The effect of drought on crop yield and water resources has been an important socio-economic concern in the Sahel region of Africa. The most severe droughts in the Sahel region occurred during the strong El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. There is thus increased need to understand the stochastic relationship between such physical mechanism like ENSO and crop yield. In this paper, such a relationship is investigated using a wavelet approach. Our result shows that a statistically significant relationship exists between ENSO and cereal production in the region. In particular, El Niño events are devastation to millet yield with little or no impact on maize and sorghum production. This can be attributed to the lower length of growing period for maize and sorghum compared to millet. On the other hand La Niña events favor cereal production and mirrored sorghum yield during the La Niña years of 1973–1976. The potential value of ENSO-based rainfall forecast and socio-economic impact on local population in Sahel region are discussed.