Impact of Climate Change on Cereal Production in Burkina Faso

Abstract

With the increase of greenhouse effect gas emissions, caused by human activities, climate change impacts on environment and economic activities, especially agriculture in developing countries, remain currently an international concern. In Burkina Faso, the share of the agriculture sector to the real GDP is the largest historically and represented 44% in 2016. Furthermore, this sector remains heavily dependent on climatic conditions. With regard importance to these facts, the objective of the present study is to analyze the vulnerability of the agricultural sector, mainly the production of maize, millet, sorghum and rice in Burkina Faso to the effects of climate change. To test the hypothesis whether "climate variables, such as rainfall and temperature have a positive impact on cereal production," a linear model was estimated by the stepwise method on panel data. The results show that increased precipitation would result in an increased production of maize, millet and sorghum and decreased that of rice. While an increase in temperature contributes to a decrease of the latter. Thus, the impact of climate change on agriculture is real in Burkina Faso and the adoption of effective adaptation and mitigation is of great importance.