The Impact of climate change on agriculture

Thomas, Timothy S. 2024. The Impact of climate change on agriculture. In Advancing the climate and bioeconomy agenda in Africa for resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, eds. Getaw Tadesse, Katrin Glatzel, and Moumini Savadogo. Chapter 6, Pp. 64-77. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155084

Agriculture is an extremely important sector for Africa, providing a large contribution to GDP in most countries and, more importantly, representing a key source of employment in most of the continent—including 52 percent in Africa south of the Sahara in 2022 (International Labour Organization 2024)—while also serving as a bulwark against household food insecurity. Agriculture, however, is the sector most exposed to climate risk, and in years when climate conditions are not favorable, the resulting lower-than-normal agricultural production contributes to increases in food insecurity in almost every country on the continent.