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Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa
Dryland farmers in southern Africa operate under harsh conditions; infertile soils, erratic rainfall regimes, sub-optimal input levels etc. Crop yields have generally been low, negatively affecting food security and livelihoods. Climate change is anticipated to aggravate these already existing chall...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Environmental and Geographical Science
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613212340387840 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Zinyengere, Nkulumo |
| author2 | Hewitson, Bruce |
| author_browse | Hewitson, Bruce Zinyengere, Nkulumo |
| author_facet | Hewitson, Bruce Zinyengere, Nkulumo |
| author_sort | Zinyengere, Nkulumo |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Dryland farmers in southern Africa operate under harsh conditions; infertile soils, erratic rainfall regimes, sub-optimal input levels etc. Crop yields have generally been low, negatively affecting food security and livelihoods. Climate change is anticipated to aggravate these already existing challenges. In the recent past, a wide range of studies has sought to understand how climate change will affect crop production. However, there are only few detailed localised studies that focus on understanding climate change impacts and adaptation under heterogeneous conditions that dryland farmers in southern Africa operate. This study sought to understand how climate change will affect food crop production in southern Africa's drylands and to provide insight on the potential of on-farm agronomic management strategies for adaptation. The study focused on three locations representing some of the agro-ecological conditions of southern Africa i.e. Big Bend in Swaziland (low altitude, hot and dry), Mohale's Hoek in Lesotho (high altitude, cool and wet and dry), and Lilongwe in Malawi (mid altitude, wet with moderate temperatures). The study was performed largely using a climate-crop model simulation approach supported by a review of similar approaches in the region, data collected from reported agricultural experimental trials, regional experts, downscaled climate projections (using up to 9 GCMs) and surveys. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/20846 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:33.381Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Department of Environmental and Geographical Science |
| publisherStr | Department of Environmental and Geographical Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/20846 Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa Zinyengere, Nkulumo Hewitson, Bruce Tadross, Mark Crespo, Olivier Environmental and Geographical Science Dryland farmers in southern Africa operate under harsh conditions; infertile soils, erratic rainfall regimes, sub-optimal input levels etc. Crop yields have generally been low, negatively affecting food security and livelihoods. Climate change is anticipated to aggravate these already existing challenges. In the recent past, a wide range of studies has sought to understand how climate change will affect crop production. However, there are only few detailed localised studies that focus on understanding climate change impacts and adaptation under heterogeneous conditions that dryland farmers in southern Africa operate. This study sought to understand how climate change will affect food crop production in southern Africa's drylands and to provide insight on the potential of on-farm agronomic management strategies for adaptation. The study focused on three locations representing some of the agro-ecological conditions of southern Africa i.e. Big Bend in Swaziland (low altitude, hot and dry), Mohale's Hoek in Lesotho (high altitude, cool and wet and dry), and Lilongwe in Malawi (mid altitude, wet with moderate temperatures). The study was performed largely using a climate-crop model simulation approach supported by a review of similar approaches in the region, data collected from reported agricultural experimental trials, regional experts, downscaled climate projections (using up to 9 GCMs) and surveys. 2016-07-27T10:18:57Z 2016-07-27T10:18:57Z 2016 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20846 eng application/pdf Department of Environmental and Geographical Science Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Environmental and Geographical Science Zinyengere, Nkulumo Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa |
| title_full | Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa |
| title_fullStr | Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa |
| title_short | Assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern Africa |
| title_sort | assessing climate change impacts and agronomic adaptation strategies for dryland crop production in southern africa |
| topic | Environmental and Geographical Science |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20846 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zinyengerenkulumo assessingclimatechangeimpactsandagronomicadaptationstrategiesfordrylandcropproductioninsouthernafrica |