Publications des agents du Cirad

Cirad

Assessing climate adaptation options and uncertainties for cereal systems in West Africa

Guan K., Sultan B., Biasutti M., Baron C., Lobell D.B.. 2017. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 232 : p. 291-305.

DOI: 10.18167/DVN1/JSAHFB

DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2016.07.021

In the coming decades, the already fragile agricultural system in West Africa will face further challenges in meeting food security, both from increasing population and from the impacts of climate change. Optimal prioritization of adaptation investments requires the assessment of various possible adaptation options and their uncertainties; successful adaptations of agriculture to climate change should not only help farmers deal with current climate risks, but also reduce negative (or enhance positive) impacts associated with climate change using robust climate projections. Here, we use two well-validated crop models (APSIM v7.5 and SARRA-H v3.2) and an ensemble of downscaled climate forcing from the CMIP5 models to assess five possible and realistic adaptation options for the production of the staple crop sorghum (Sorghum bicolor Moench.): (i) late sowing, (ii) intensification of seeding density and fertilizer use, (iii) increasing cultivars' thermal time requirement, (iv) water harvesting, and (v) increasing resilience to heat stress during the flowering period. We adopt a new assessment framework to account for both the impacts of proposed adaptation options in the historical climate and their ability to reduce the impacts of future climate change, and we also consider changes in both mean yield and inter-annual yield variability. We target the future period of 2031–2060 for the “business-as-usual” scenario (RCP8.5), and compare with the historical period of 1961–1990. Our results reveal that most proposed “adaptation options” are not more beneficial in the future than in the historical climate (-12% to +4% in mean yield), so that they do not really reduce the climate change impacts. Increased temperature resilience during the grain number formation period is the main adaptation that emerges (+4.5%). Intensification of fertilizer inputs can dramatically benefit yields in the historical/current climate (+50%), but does not reduce negative climate change impacts exc

Mots-clés : plante céréalière; adaptation aux changements climatiques; changement climatique; analyse de système; évaluation du risque; gestion du risque; modèle; sorghum bicolor; pratique culturale; variété; densité de semis; fertilisation; stress dû à la sécheresse; floraison; température; rendement des cultures; modèle de simulation; modélisation des cultures; afrique occidentale

Documents associés

Article (a-revue à facteur d'impact)