Drought

Niger, owing to its climatic, institutional, livelihood, economic, and environmental context, is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world. Poverty is pervasive in Niger and it ranks low on almost all the human development indicators. Agriculture is the most important sector of Niger’s economy and accounts for over 40 percent of national gross domestic product (GDP) and is the principal source of livelihood for over 80 percent of the country’s population.

A climate change risk assessment must consider at least three areas: the future pathway of global emissions; the direct risks arising from the climate’s response to those emissions; and the risks arising from the interaction of climate change with complex human systems. Each of these areas contains large uncertainties. From our assessment, we draw the following conclusions about the most significant risks.

Niger's wetlands are critical to poverty reduction, food security and biodiversity conservation, especially given the limited the irregular rainfall and the amount of land suitable for agriculture. La Mare de Tabalak, a wetland in the arid zone of Niger, and its inhabitants are already dealing with the cumulative effects of recurring droughts, a trend expected to increase with climate change.

Document: 

IISD SUSTAINABLE WETLAND MANAGEMENT IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE RISKS IN NIGER- THE CASE OF LA MARE DE TABALAK.pdf

With annual exports of around one million tons, worth USD 1.7 billion and representing approximately 14% of global coffee production in 2010, Vietnam today ranks as the world‟s second largest coffee producer. Since 1999, the country has been the world‟s largest exporter of Robusta coffee with approximately 500,000 rural households deriving most of their farming income from coffee production. 1 The sector is characterized by an extremely competitive environment with growers receiving around 95% of the FOB value.

Document: 

Coffee supply chain risk assessment (Vietnam).pdf

Niger is a case of living perpetually with risk, thus more emphasis on long-term structural solutions, rather than short-term quick fixes, is required to improve the resilience of the agricultural sector.

Document: 

NigerRiskManagement13_web[2].pdf

The probabilistic approach to drought risk assessment in this study consists of conducting a frequency analysis of the gaps between water demand and availability in the crop root zone during the crop season, constructing appropriate drought vulnerability models, and deriving loss exceedance curves and return period losses for selected crops in drought prone countries of Africa.