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The effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in Burkina Faso: case study

BACKGROUND: Climate change leads to more frequent and severe extreme weather events including floods, heatwaves, heavy rainfalls, and droughts. In contrast to the majority of research on weather extremes in sub-Saharan Africa, which focus primarily on how a lack of rainfall causes droughts, this pap...

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Autores principales: Müller, Charlotte, Ouédraogo, Windpanga Aristide, Schwarz, Maximilian, Barteit, Sandra, Sauerborn, Rainer
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10442567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37614457
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1166913
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author Müller, Charlotte
Ouédraogo, Windpanga Aristide
Schwarz, Maximilian
Barteit, Sandra
Sauerborn, Rainer
author_facet Müller, Charlotte
Ouédraogo, Windpanga Aristide
Schwarz, Maximilian
Barteit, Sandra
Sauerborn, Rainer
author_sort Müller, Charlotte
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Climate change leads to more frequent and severe extreme weather events including floods, heatwaves, heavy rainfalls, and droughts. In contrast to the majority of research on weather extremes in sub-Saharan Africa, which focus primarily on how a lack of rainfall causes droughts, this paper aims to elucidate the effect of flooding on harvest failure in rural Burkina Faso. METHODS: We conducted a case study in north-western Nouna, Burkina Faso, between August and December 2021 covering a study population of n = 180 participants. The study comprised four components: (i) interviews with farmers (n = 180) on whether any of their fields had been inundated and if so, on harvest loss on these fields; (ii) determining the feasibility of using Sentinel-2 satellite images to validate study participants reports of floods; (iii) characterizing short-term weather including frequency and duration, of extreme rainfall events within the study area, as well as comparing cumulative rainfall (long-term) over the past 50 years; and (v), estimating both the food energy and economic loss of harvest failure due to flooding. RESULTS: 49% of interviewed farmers (n = 88) reported that floods had damaged at least one of their fields. Some fields (n = 13, 7%) had no harvest due to flooding, while some farmers (n = 14, 8%) had lost part of their harvest. Images from the Sentinel-2-Satellite indicated that reported and remotely observed flooding were consistent. According to time series of data from the local weather station, there has been an increase irregular rainfall distribution and at the same time of cumulative annual rainfall in Nouna. Furthermore, a first illustrative calculation allowed us to estimate the amount of energy lost when one hectare of a common crop is flooded. CONCLUSION: This case study demonstrated that flood-related harvest failures leading to crop losses in sub-Saharan Africa, exemplified by Burkina Faso, are likely to be substantial. This study serves as a proof-of-principle for flooding effects on food security. This could provide more detail for agricultural adaptation and mitigation strategies. Inundation-vulnerable fields need alternative and novel management practices, which may only be effectively implemented if agricultural institutions and national policy-making bodies receive evidence of flooding e.g., from remote sensing.
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spelling pubmed-104425672023-08-23 The effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in Burkina Faso: case study Müller, Charlotte Ouédraogo, Windpanga Aristide Schwarz, Maximilian Barteit, Sandra Sauerborn, Rainer Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Climate change leads to more frequent and severe extreme weather events including floods, heatwaves, heavy rainfalls, and droughts. In contrast to the majority of research on weather extremes in sub-Saharan Africa, which focus primarily on how a lack of rainfall causes droughts, this paper aims to elucidate the effect of flooding on harvest failure in rural Burkina Faso. METHODS: We conducted a case study in north-western Nouna, Burkina Faso, between August and December 2021 covering a study population of n = 180 participants. The study comprised four components: (i) interviews with farmers (n = 180) on whether any of their fields had been inundated and if so, on harvest loss on these fields; (ii) determining the feasibility of using Sentinel-2 satellite images to validate study participants reports of floods; (iii) characterizing short-term weather including frequency and duration, of extreme rainfall events within the study area, as well as comparing cumulative rainfall (long-term) over the past 50 years; and (v), estimating both the food energy and economic loss of harvest failure due to flooding. RESULTS: 49% of interviewed farmers (n = 88) reported that floods had damaged at least one of their fields. Some fields (n = 13, 7%) had no harvest due to flooding, while some farmers (n = 14, 8%) had lost part of their harvest. Images from the Sentinel-2-Satellite indicated that reported and remotely observed flooding were consistent. According to time series of data from the local weather station, there has been an increase irregular rainfall distribution and at the same time of cumulative annual rainfall in Nouna. Furthermore, a first illustrative calculation allowed us to estimate the amount of energy lost when one hectare of a common crop is flooded. CONCLUSION: This case study demonstrated that flood-related harvest failures leading to crop losses in sub-Saharan Africa, exemplified by Burkina Faso, are likely to be substantial. This study serves as a proof-of-principle for flooding effects on food security. This could provide more detail for agricultural adaptation and mitigation strategies. Inundation-vulnerable fields need alternative and novel management practices, which may only be effectively implemented if agricultural institutions and national policy-making bodies receive evidence of flooding e.g., from remote sensing. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10442567/ /pubmed/37614457 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1166913 Text en Copyright © 2023 Müller, Ouédraogo, Schwarz, Barteit and Sauerborn. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Müller, Charlotte
Ouédraogo, Windpanga Aristide
Schwarz, Maximilian
Barteit, Sandra
Sauerborn, Rainer
The effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in Burkina Faso: case study
title The effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in Burkina Faso: case study
title_full The effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in Burkina Faso: case study
title_fullStr The effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in Burkina Faso: case study
title_full_unstemmed The effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in Burkina Faso: case study
title_short The effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in Burkina Faso: case study
title_sort effects of climate change-induced flooding on harvest failure in burkina faso: case study
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10442567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37614457
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1166913
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