The session recording will be archived on the site until June 25th, 2023

This session was streamed but not recorded

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Description:

The effects of climate and land-use/land-cover change on agricultural production and food security across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are of great concern to smallholder farmers, national and local governments, non-governmental organizations, agribusiness, and scientists.

According to the World Bank, rainfed agriculture accounts for about 96 percent of cropland in Sub-Saharan Africa, but despite some improvement in agricultural productivity through irrigation and drainage, many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa will continue to be strained due to changes in rainfall patterns and temperatures. Scientific research and innovations (e.g., development of drought and heat tolerant crops) and foreign direct investments are expected to boost African agriculture’s productivity and nutrition, as well as build climate resilience (Africa Renewal, UNDPI, 2022). In this session, we ask the question: How can geographers and multidisciplinary geospatial approaches help?

The integration of geospatial analytics, crop yield models, remote sensing systems and platforms, (and other decision support tools) have advanced rapidly in recent years. This has enabled researchers to analyze regional crop productivity, model present and future crop suitability and yields, test crop-water use under various scenarios involving climate change and evaluate efficiency along agrifood chains.

These studies provide quantitative projections and insights to improve the security and resilience of the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. We invite papers to our session to examine this nexus of climate and land-use/land-cover change, food security across SSA, and geospatial analytics for creating sustainable solutions. Furthermore, we invite papers that address the human-environmental component of agricultural decision-making to broaden participation in this area of research.

Inquiries about the session may be directed to Leah Mungai Ph.D. (lmmungai@ua.edu) and Brad G. Peter, Ph.D. (bradp@uark.edu)


References

•World Bank. 2022 Agriculture. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture

•Africa Renewal 2022. Africa’s new harvest: To transform agriculture, we must speed up innovations and collaboration. Qu Dongyu.https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2022/africa%E2%80%99s-new-harvest-transform-agriculture-we-must-speed-innovations-and

•United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 2022.Investment flows to Africa reached a record $83 billion in 2021. https://unctad.org/news/investment-flows-africa-reached-record-83-billion-2021

Non-Presenting Participants