Climate change vulnerability and adaptation of crop producers in sub-Saharan Africa: a review on concepts, approaches and methods

Climate change severely affects sub-Saharan African economies in several ways: increased temperatures, erratic rainfall variability patterns, and recurrent droughts and floods. Such adverse climate change effects may result in a greater incidence of crop pests, loss of soil moisture content, rapid soil nutrient depletion and substantial decreases in crop productivity and yields. These effects in combination with lack of access to improved, high-yielding crop varieties, limited agricultural extension services and poor access to irrigation infrastructure could further threaten access to food, limit export earnings and markedly lower net crop revenue. Several definitions, assessment approaches and methods for the concepts related to “vulnerability” and “adaptation” exist due to complex nature of climate impact and strategies used to deal with them. Based on the context of such studies, this paper reviews climate change risks, people’s vulnerability to such risks as well as synthesize different approaches, methods and models used to assess vulnerability and adaptation in the area of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. As climate change effects are complex and site-specific, the understanding of several concepts, approaches and methods provides detailed information on farmers’ vulnerability and adaptation process. Such information would be useful to inform adaptation interventions and agricultural policies that build farmers’ resilience.