Climate Change and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Climate change has potential consequences on food security. This topic has received considerable focus among the literature. Since agriculture is heavily reliant on weather patterns, this can put food security under risk. This research aims to contribute to the existing literature by evaluating the impacts of climate change on the most harvested crops in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa: cassava, maize, millet, groundnuts, and sorghum. The study employs linear and non-linear specifications to assess the relationship between the most cultivated crop yields and weather data, average precipitation and total precipitation. The estimates indicate that under the linear specification, a 1˚C increase in temperature would lead to a statistically significant decline of around 17.78% for maize yields, 7.03% for sorghum yields, and 11.48% for groundnut yields. The coefficients are relatively higher when compared to a past study covering 1961-2002, suggesting a worsening of climate change. Little to no evidence for potential nonlinearities was found, which could be due to the limitations of the study.