El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year
Maize is the preferred staple of most of southern Africa. In Malawi it supplies two-thirds of national calorie intake. Nine out of 10 farming households produce maize and devote over 70% of their land to growing it. Most farming households are vulnerable to the rainfall patterns. Over 90% of farming...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Opinion Piece |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
The Conversation
2024
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139781 |
| _version_ | 1855521171533987840 |
|---|---|
| author | De Weerdt, Joachim Arndt, Channing Thurlow, James Duchoslav, Jan Glauber, Joseph W. You, Liangzhi Anderson, Weston |
| author_browse | Anderson, Weston Arndt, Channing De Weerdt, Joachim Duchoslav, Jan Glauber, Joseph W. Thurlow, James You, Liangzhi |
| author_facet | De Weerdt, Joachim Arndt, Channing Thurlow, James Duchoslav, Jan Glauber, Joseph W. You, Liangzhi Anderson, Weston |
| author_sort | De Weerdt, Joachim |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Maize is the preferred staple of most of southern Africa. In Malawi it supplies two-thirds of national calorie intake. Nine out of 10 farming households produce maize and devote over 70% of their land to growing it. Most farming households are vulnerable to the rainfall patterns. Over 90% of farming households in the country rely solely on rain to irrigate their maize plants. We looked at possible weather pattern changes driven by El Niño – an unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean – and their impact on maize production in Malawi. We did this by developing a model from historical district crop data and El Niño events since the 1980s. Econometric modelling, which uses statistics and mathematics, is useful in studying the cause and effect of relationships, in the case of weather patterns. Historically, two out of every three El Niño events have coincided with reduced maize harvests of, on average, 22.5%. |
| format | Opinion Piece |
| id | CGSpace139781 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | The Conversation |
| publisherStr | The Conversation |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1397812025-12-08T10:29:22Z El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year De Weerdt, Joachim Arndt, Channing Thurlow, James Duchoslav, Jan Glauber, Joseph W. You, Liangzhi Anderson, Weston El Niño maize households harvesting Maize is the preferred staple of most of southern Africa. In Malawi it supplies two-thirds of national calorie intake. Nine out of 10 farming households produce maize and devote over 70% of their land to growing it. Most farming households are vulnerable to the rainfall patterns. Over 90% of farming households in the country rely solely on rain to irrigate their maize plants. We looked at possible weather pattern changes driven by El Niño – an unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean – and their impact on maize production in Malawi. We did this by developing a model from historical district crop data and El Niño events since the 1980s. Econometric modelling, which uses statistics and mathematics, is useful in studying the cause and effect of relationships, in the case of weather patterns. Historically, two out of every three El Niño events have coincided with reduced maize harvests of, on average, 22.5%. 2024-01-28 2024-03-01T16:20:56Z 2024-03-01T16:20:56Z Opinion Piece https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139781 en Open Access The Conversation De Weerdt, Joachim; Arndt, Channing; Thurlow, James; Duchoslav, Jan; Glauber, Joseph; You, Liangzhi; and Anderson, Weston. El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year. The Conversation online editorial. First published online January 28, 2024. https://theconversation.com/el-nino-malawis-harvest-of-its-staple-food-maize-may-fall-by-22-5-this-year-221349 |
| spellingShingle | El Niño maize households harvesting De Weerdt, Joachim Arndt, Channing Thurlow, James Duchoslav, Jan Glauber, Joseph W. You, Liangzhi Anderson, Weston El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year |
| title | El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year |
| title_full | El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year |
| title_fullStr | El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year |
| title_full_unstemmed | El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year |
| title_short | El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year |
| title_sort | el nino malawi s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22 5 this year |
| topic | El Niño maize households harvesting |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139781 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT deweerdtjoachim elninomalawisharvestofitsstaplefoodmaizemayfallby225thisyear AT arndtchanning elninomalawisharvestofitsstaplefoodmaizemayfallby225thisyear AT thurlowjames elninomalawisharvestofitsstaplefoodmaizemayfallby225thisyear AT duchoslavjan elninomalawisharvestofitsstaplefoodmaizemayfallby225thisyear AT glauberjosephw elninomalawisharvestofitsstaplefoodmaizemayfallby225thisyear AT youliangzhi elninomalawisharvestofitsstaplefoodmaizemayfallby225thisyear AT andersonweston elninomalawisharvestofitsstaplefoodmaizemayfallby225thisyear |