Abstract
Climate analogues, based on 30 years meteorological data, were identified in smallholder areas of Zimbabwe. The sites were Kadoma (722 mm annual mean rainfall; 21.8 °C annual mean temperature) which was the higher temperature analogue site for Mazowe (842 mm annual mean rainfall; 18.2 °C annual mean temperature) for wetter areas, and Chiredzi (541 mm annual mean rainfall; 21.3 °C annual mean temperature) which was the higher temperature analogue site for Matobo (567 mm annual mean rainfall: 18.4 °C annual mean temperature) for drier areas. At each site and for each crop, three varieties were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The trials were conducted for two seasons (2011/2012 and 2012/2013). Maize and groundnut yields were higher at the cooler and wet sites and decreased significantly at the warmer and dry sites. In case of sorghum and cowpea, yields at the hotter site remained high implying that these crops are more tolerant to warmer temperatures predicted for 2050. At the drier sites, yields for all crops were significantly lower at the hotter site implying that crop production in the 2050s climate of the cooler site will be more difficult. The hypothesis that with increasing surface temperatures in a climate change scenario short duration genotypes can perform better compared with long duration was not confirmed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bruns HA (2009) A survey of factors involved in crop maturity. Agron J 101:60–66
Carter TR, Jones R, Lu X, Bhadwal S, Conde C, Mearns L, O’neill B, Rounsevell M, Zurek M (2007) New assessment methods and the characterisation of future conditions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Eriksen S, Aldunce P, Bahinipati CS, Martins RDA, Molefe JI, Nhemachena C, O’brien K, Olorunfemi F, Park J, Sygna L (2011) When not every response to climate change is a good one: identifying principles for sustainable adaptation. Clim Dev 3:7–20
Gregory PJ, Ingram JS, Brklacich M (2005) Climate change and food security. Philos Trans R Soc B Biol Sci 360:2139–2148
Matarira C, Makadho J, Mwamuka F (1995) Zimbabwe: climate change impacts on maize production and adaptive measures for the agricultural sector. Interim report on climate change country studies, US country studies program, Washington, DC
Nyabako T, Manzungu E (2012) An assessment of the adaptability to climate change of commercially available maize varieties in Zimbabwe. Environ Nat Resour Res 2:32
Parry ML et al (2004) Effects of climate change on global food production under SRES emissions and socio-economic scenarios. Glob Environ Change 14:53–67
Rao SA, Mushonga J (1987) A catalogue of passport and characterization data of sorghum, pearl milletand finger millet germplasm from Zimbabwe. A catalogue of passport and characterization data of sorghum, pearl milletand finger millet germplasm from Zimbabwe
Rosenzweig C, Parry ML, Fischer, Frohberg K (1993) Climate change and world food supply. Research report no. 3. Environmental change unit. University of Oxford. pp 1 24
Unganai LS (1996) Historic and future climatic change in Zimbabwe. Clim Res 6:137–145
VSN (2011) GenStat for Windows, 14th edn. VSN International, Hemel Hempstead
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany who sponsored the project “Adapting agriculture to climate change: Developing promising strategies using analogue locations in Eastern and Southern Africa” (CALESA—Climate Analogue Locations in Eastern and Southern Africa).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nyamangara, J., Masvaya, E.N., Tirivavi, R.D., Munodawafa, A. (2015). Grain Yield Responses of Selected Crop Varieties at Two Pairs of Temperature Analogue Sites in Sub-humid and Semi-arid Areas of Zimbabwe. In: Leal Filho, W., Esilaba, A., Rao, K., Sridhar, G. (eds) Adapting African Agriculture to Climate Change. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13000-2_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13000-2_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12999-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13000-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)