Trends, impacts, and local responses to drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern Cameroon
Drought is one of the climatic events that threaten water availability, food security, and local livelihoods in semi-arid areas. Whilst studies have evolved on the impacts of climate change on humanity, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, limited scholarly insight exists on the impacts of specific cli...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-06-01
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| Series: | World Development Sustainability |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X22000398 |
| _version_ | 1797797914886537216 |
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| author | Yeluma Mary Ntali James G. Lyimo Francis Dakyaga |
| author_facet | Yeluma Mary Ntali James G. Lyimo Francis Dakyaga |
| author_sort | Yeluma Mary Ntali |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Drought is one of the climatic events that threaten water availability, food security, and local livelihoods in semi-arid areas. Whilst studies have evolved on the impacts of climate change on humanity, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, limited scholarly insight exists on the impacts of specific climatic stressors and shocks and how residents respond to such. This study contributes to climate change policy planning debates by analysing the trends, impacts and local responses to drought drawing on household questionnaires, participatory field observations, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The CUSUM and Mann-Kendall tests were used to analyse weather data (rainfall and temperature) to establish their trends. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used to determine drought occurrences and intensities. The results showed significant variation: rise and decline in temperature and rainfall over the years. The SPI (range from -0.01 to -2.8) indicated extreme, severe, moderate, and mild drought (mild (73%) being the notorious) event that instigated crop failure, drying of water sources, loss of pasture, food shortages, high prices of foodstuffs, malnutrition, water scarcity, and health problems and loss of livestock. Households responded by utilizing crop residues and tree branches as fodder for livestock, reducing the number of times households eat, and changing crop varieties and planting dates. This study argues that considering the geographical variation of climatic shocks and stressors, a focus on the specific climatic event may offer the possibility for an in-depth understanding of its impacts on local residents, and useful for engendering climate planning policy intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T03:56:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e8ad463220464991a334b538a32ff9bc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2772-655X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T03:56:25Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | World Development Sustainability |
| spelling | doaj.art-e8ad463220464991a334b538a32ff9bc2023-06-22T05:06:38ZengElsevierWorld Development Sustainability2772-655X2023-06-012100040Trends, impacts, and local responses to drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern CameroonYeluma Mary Ntali0James G. Lyimo1Francis Dakyaga2Centre for Climate Change Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 33453, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Corresponding author.Institute of Resource Assessment, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35097, Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaDepartment of Urban and Regional Planning, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Department of Local Governance and City Management, SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, GhanaDrought is one of the climatic events that threaten water availability, food security, and local livelihoods in semi-arid areas. Whilst studies have evolved on the impacts of climate change on humanity, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, limited scholarly insight exists on the impacts of specific climatic stressors and shocks and how residents respond to such. This study contributes to climate change policy planning debates by analysing the trends, impacts and local responses to drought drawing on household questionnaires, participatory field observations, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The CUSUM and Mann-Kendall tests were used to analyse weather data (rainfall and temperature) to establish their trends. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used to determine drought occurrences and intensities. The results showed significant variation: rise and decline in temperature and rainfall over the years. The SPI (range from -0.01 to -2.8) indicated extreme, severe, moderate, and mild drought (mild (73%) being the notorious) event that instigated crop failure, drying of water sources, loss of pasture, food shortages, high prices of foodstuffs, malnutrition, water scarcity, and health problems and loss of livestock. Households responded by utilizing crop residues and tree branches as fodder for livestock, reducing the number of times households eat, and changing crop varieties and planting dates. This study argues that considering the geographical variation of climatic shocks and stressors, a focus on the specific climatic event may offer the possibility for an in-depth understanding of its impacts on local residents, and useful for engendering climate planning policy intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X22000398DroughtPolicy planningClimate changeAdaptation strategiesNorthern Cameroon |
| spellingShingle | Yeluma Mary Ntali James G. Lyimo Francis Dakyaga Trends, impacts, and local responses to drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern Cameroon World Development Sustainability Drought Policy planning Climate change Adaptation strategies Northern Cameroon |
| title | Trends, impacts, and local responses to drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern Cameroon |
| title_full | Trends, impacts, and local responses to drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern Cameroon |
| title_fullStr | Trends, impacts, and local responses to drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern Cameroon |
| title_full_unstemmed | Trends, impacts, and local responses to drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern Cameroon |
| title_short | Trends, impacts, and local responses to drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern Cameroon |
| title_sort | trends impacts and local responses to drought stress in diamare division northern cameroon |
| topic | Drought Policy planning Climate change Adaptation strategies Northern Cameroon |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X22000398 |
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