A systematic review of recent estimations of climate change impact on agriculture and adaptation strategies perspectives in Africa

Abstract

The systematic review using the PRISMA protocol aims to identify the observed and projected impacts of climate change on crop production and food security, water resources, and livestock and explores the perspectives of adaptation strategies employed to cope with this challenge across African countries. The review permits visualization in one scheme of the most recent various results of ongoing climate impact on agriculture and strategies across African countries. It enables the agricultural community and policymakers to consider it as they address climate change risks to agriculture, livestock, water resources, as well as food security. Overall results from 125 selected articles show that in the last four years, there has been a lack of research on climate change-related issues analysis in agriculture in some countries, especially in Northern Africa, Middle Africa, and Southern Africa. In the same regions, studies on the impact analysis on livestock, water, and management techniques are limited. Even though the agriculture sector is severely impacted by climate change, the effects can still be positive or negative depending on the products cultivated and the region. The various adaptation strategies implemented seem to be more effective when applied as a combination than a single application. However, some challenges including the lack of knowledge, limited input access, insufficient equipment, and financial constraints in strategy adoption exist. As climate change is a persisting and continuing fact getting worse over time, the adaptation strategies implemented today may require further improvement. Thus, our study suggests that more research should be done in this area to facilitate continuous improvement. Women’s leadership is important in the adoption of sustainable adaptation strategies. The introduction of gender factors in the assessment of the effectiveness of climate change adaptation strategies and food security components is recommended. Also, serious research should be carried out to define the most impactful adaptation strategies according to the important staple growing crops by region to cope with climate change impacts in the African food system.