TITLE:
Impact of Climate Change on Food Crop Production in Congo Brazzaville
AUTHORS:
Edwige Kamitewoko
KEYWORDS:
Food Crop Production, Climate Change, ARDL, Congo
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.12 No.11,
November
29,
2021
ABSTRACT: Agriculture is a key for
economic transformation, food security, and nutrition. It generates foreign
currency through the export process of agricultural products. It creates a
source of employment to the population through farming, business and research
activities therefore raising the standard of living of individuals.
Agriculture, especially food crop production has
always been at the mercy of unpredictable weather, but a rapidly changing
climate is making agriculture an even more
vulnerable enterprise. Food crop production depends on a set of factors
which contribute to the increase or decrease of its volume. These factors are essential to guarantee quality production,
while others are complementary and serve to improve yields in terms of
quality and quantity. However, among these factors, others are difficult to
control such as climatic hazards. This study
analyzes the impact of climate change on Congo agriculture using data
from FAO STAT. Applying Autoregressive-Distributed Lag Regression or ARDL bounds testing approach for analysis of
co-integration between the variables, the results reveal that, rainfall
depreciates the production of food crops in the long run and has a negative
effect on production in the short run; the cultivated area impacts positively
food crop production in the long run, but has no effect in the short run. A
better understanding of farmers’ perceptions of/and responses to climate change
is important for decision-makers to design
more effective adaptation policies. In order to lowering the drastic impacts of
climate change on crop productivity, the study recommends a development of
advanced irrigation system, farmers’ access to meteorological information and
an increase in area under cultivation.