Altitudinal Analysis of Rain-based Drought Indices and Their Impacts on Crop Production in Mchinji District, Malawi

S.R. Chikabvumbwa¹ , C.C. Banda² , S.W. Chisale³

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.6 , Issue.8 , pp.8-13, Aug-2020

Online published on Aug 31, 2020

Copyright © S.R. Chikabvumbwa, C.C. Banda, S.W. Chisale . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Rainfed agriculture is still the mainstream for livelihoods of most people in Mchinji district. With effects of the changing climate, shift in rainfall trends is the key challenge to sustainable agriculture production. This study aimed at analyzing the spatial characteristics of rain-based drought indices and their impacts on crop production in Mchinji district. Rainfall data (1977-2017) was collected from the Department of Meteorology and Climate Change. Crop yields data (1983-2017) for maize, groundnuts and cassava was collected from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. Statistical analyses were done in Excel 2013. Rainfall anomaly indices were calculated using Drought Monitoring And Prediction software application. The findings revealed dynamic annual rainfall fluxes and high levels of rainfall unpredictability in the district. The study further found that high rainfall variability in the district was highly correlated to the reduction of crop yields in maize and significant increases in cassava yields. This study therefore recommends strong emphasis and promotion of small scale water management technologies such as rainwater harvesting in rainfed agriculture by the government and non-Governmental organizations in order to mitigate the impacts of rainfall variations

Key-Words / Index Term :
Drought, Rainfall variability, Drought index, Disaster Risk Management, Rainwater Harvesting

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