Modelling climate change impacts on maize and soybean yields in Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia

dc.contributor.advisorCrespo, Olivier
dc.contributor.authorChilambwe, Alice
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-18T04:12:02Z
dc.date.available2022-02-18T04:12:02Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.date.updated2022-02-09T12:56:04Z
dc.description.abstractIt is widely recognised that the unfavourable impacts of climate change on agriculture production may add up significantly to the developmental challenges of ensuring food security and reducing poverty. In Zambia, climate change impact assessments on crops are mainly carried out using large spatial scale climate data, jeopardizing on local scale impacts and adaptation capability that reveal the range of agronomic conditions under which farmers in specific areas operate. Through two major maize and soybean producing provinces in Zambia, this study enhances the understanding of district production variations under location specific climate change. This study aims at providing a climate change impact assessment in the light of three Global Climate Models (GCMs), under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), and a crop simulation model Agrometshell (AMS). This allows for an exploration of crop production choices best suited at district scale, to feed into larger provincial and national future production programs. Two future climate periods were selected to cover both near (2020 – 2039) and long-term (2050 – 2069) climate. It was shown that the impacts of climate change on crops in Central and Eastern provinces will be beyond historical natural variation and will vary across districts and crops. Maize yields in majority of the districts will be impacted negatively whilst soybean yields will moderately benefit from future climate as five out of eleven districts studied are projected to have yield increases. These results suggest that climate change will increase the risk of food insecurity in the provinces studied and the country considering that maize is a central crop in overall agricultural crop production. Soybean which may offer an opportunity to balance with some maize loss could be accounted for in policy making to achieve future food security. This study improves knowledge and understanding of the impacts of climate change on district agricultural food production systems, and the need of good location specific knowledge to better address the challenge of climate change.
dc.identifier.apacitationChilambwe, A. (2021). <i>Modelling climate change impacts on maize and soybean yields in Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia</i>. (). ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Environmental and Geographical Science. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35697en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationChilambwe, Alice. <i>"Modelling climate change impacts on maize and soybean yields in Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia."</i> ., ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35697en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationChilambwe, A. 2021. Modelling climate change impacts on maize and soybean yields in Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia. . ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Environmental and Geographical Science. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35697en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Master Thesis AU - Chilambwe, Alice AB - It is widely recognised that the unfavourable impacts of climate change on agriculture production may add up significantly to the developmental challenges of ensuring food security and reducing poverty. In Zambia, climate change impact assessments on crops are mainly carried out using large spatial scale climate data, jeopardizing on local scale impacts and adaptation capability that reveal the range of agronomic conditions under which farmers in specific areas operate. Through two major maize and soybean producing provinces in Zambia, this study enhances the understanding of district production variations under location specific climate change. This study aims at providing a climate change impact assessment in the light of three Global Climate Models (GCMs), under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), and a crop simulation model Agrometshell (AMS). This allows for an exploration of crop production choices best suited at district scale, to feed into larger provincial and national future production programs. Two future climate periods were selected to cover both near (2020 – 2039) and long-term (2050 – 2069) climate. It was shown that the impacts of climate change on crops in Central and Eastern provinces will be beyond historical natural variation and will vary across districts and crops. Maize yields in majority of the districts will be impacted negatively whilst soybean yields will moderately benefit from future climate as five out of eleven districts studied are projected to have yield increases. These results suggest that climate change will increase the risk of food insecurity in the provinces studied and the country considering that maize is a central crop in overall agricultural crop production. Soybean which may offer an opportunity to balance with some maize loss could be accounted for in policy making to achieve future food security. This study improves knowledge and understanding of the impacts of climate change on district agricultural food production systems, and the need of good location specific knowledge to better address the challenge of climate change. DA - 2021_ DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Climate Change and Development LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PY - 2021 T1 - Modelling climate change impacts on maize and soybean yields in Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia TI - Modelling climate change impacts on maize and soybean yields in Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35697 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/35697
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationChilambwe A. Modelling climate change impacts on maize and soybean yields in Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia. []. ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, 2021 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35697en_ZA
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Environmental and Geographical Science
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Science
dc.subjectClimate Change and Development
dc.titleModelling climate change impacts on maize and soybean yields in Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMSc
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