Author(s)

Angora Aman^1*, Moussa Nafogou², Hermann Vami N’Guessan Bi², Yves K. Kouadio¹, Hélène Boyossoro Kouadio²

¹Tropical Climate Team, Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics and Fluid Mechanics (LAPA MF), University of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
²University Center of Applied Research in Remote Sensing (CURAT), University of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

During the period spanning the 1970s and1980s, countries in the West African Sahel experienced severe drought. Its impact on agriculture and ecosystems has highlighted the importance of monitoring the Sahelian rainy season. In Sahelian countries such as Mali, rainfall is the major determinant of crop production. Unfortunately, rainfall is highly variable in time and space. Therefore, this study is conducted to analyze and forecast the impact of climatic parameters on the rain-fed rice yield cultivation in the Office Riz Mopti region. The data were collected from satellite imagery, archived meteorology data, yield and rice characteristics. The study employed Hanning filter to highlight interannual fluctuation, a test of Pettitt and the standardized precipitation index (SPI) to analyze the rainfall variability. Climate change scenarios under the RCP 8.5 scenario (HadGEM-2 ES) and agroclimatic (Cropwat) model are carried out to simulate the future climate and its impact on rice yields. The results of satellite image classifications of 1986 and 2016 show an increase of rice fields with a noticeable decrease of bare soil. The analysis of the SPI reveals that over the 30 years considered, 56.67% of the rainy seasons were dry (1986-2006) and 43.33% were wet (2007-2015). The modelling approach is applied over 1986-2006 and 2007-2015 periods—considered as typical dry and rainy years—and applied over the future, with forecasts of climate change scenarios in 2034. The results show a decrease in potential yield during dry and slightly wet years. The yields of rain-fed rice will be generally low between 2016 and 2027. Deficits are observed over the entire study area, in comparison with the potential yield. Thus, this situation could expose the population to food insecurity.

Climate Change, Remote Sensing, Rain-Fed Rice, Forecast, Yield, Mali

Aman, A. , Nafogou, M. , N’Guessan Bi, H. , Kouadio, Y. and Kouadio, H. (2019) Analysis and Forecasting of the Impact of Climatic Parameters on the Yield of Rain-Fed Rice Cultivation in the Office Riz Mopti in Mali. Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, 9, 479-497. doi: 10.4236/acs.2019.93032.