Adverse Effect of Changing Climate on Maize Production

**47**

**Chapter 4**

**Abstract**

Climate Change Impacts on

*Kelvin Mulungu and John N. Ng'ombe*

production and productivity in SSA.

over comparable time periods [3].

**1. Introduction**

Sustainable Maize Production in

Maize (*Zea mays* L.) is one of the commonly grown grain crops and remains a source of staple food and food security for most countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). But climate change threatens agricultural potential in SSA thereby risking food security especially that most maize production is rain-fed in these countries. Thus, numerous studies have examined impacts of climate change on maize production and productivity resulting in several adaption strategies being promoted to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. But to the best of our knowledge, there has not been any studies in literature that provide a review of impacts of climate change on maize production and productivity in SSA. This chapter therefore provides a review of empirical climate change impacts on maize production and its productivity in SSA. We chose SSA because most countries in SSA are underdeveloped and therefore more vulnerable to climate change effects. This is important because this review will provide an easier access of such results for both scholars and policy makers in search of empirical impacts of climate change on maize

**Keywords:** climate change, maize, smallholder farmers, sub-Saharan Africa

Climate change is a real phenomenon worldwide [1] as observed in the increase in atmospheric and oceanic temperature, decreased amounts of snow and ice as well as a rise in sea level [2]. The earth's surface has been warmer in past three successive decades [2] resulting higher average temperature compared to the past centuries. The term "climate change" is defined differently among different stakeholders even though the contents are similar in context. IPCC [3] defines climate change as a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), climate change refers to a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed

Impacts of climate change vary depending on the state of development of a region. For example, IPCC [4] suggest that rising temperatures and changing precipitation rates will most likely hamper success of rain-fed agriculture in most

Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review
