According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Le Treut et al. 2007, 96), climate is defined as average weather over a period of time, ranging from months to millions of years. Climate is usually described in terms of the mean and variability...

Agriculture in Africa south of the Sahara is becoming increasingly risky due to extreme climate variability. In recent times, scientific studies have strongly suggested that many developing countries face substantial environmental and social challenges, with food insecurity high on the list...

Modeling the impacts of climate change presents a complex challenge arising from the wide-ranging processes underlying the working of markets, ecosystems, and human behavior. The analytical framework used in this monograph integrates modeling components that range from the macro to the micro to...

The African Development Bank has called for US$40 billion per year over the coming decades to be provided to African countries to address development issues directly related to climate change. The current study addresses a key component of these issues, t

Despite some overlap between farmers’ observations and climate patterns found in the meteorological records, the meteorological data do not support the perception that is an increase in intra-season variability in rainfall. Therefore, a complete picture of climate change requires contributions...

Does participation in livestock markets improve the welfare levels of smallholder farmers in Zambia? Are there any biases in the distribution of benefits between poor and better off households? To address these questions, we employ propensity score matching and decomposition techniques on...

This paper analyzes the adoption and welfare impacts of improved maize varieties in eastern Zambia using data obtained from a sample of over 800 farm households. Using both propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression models, the paper shows that adoption of improved maize leads...

A growing number of studies show support for a positive association between food insecurity and poor mental health in developing countries. Few of these studies, however, explore the relationship statistically employing longitudinal data. This study combines ethnography with randomly sampled...