CSAG contributed to this project whereby an expert team of climate, crop, economic, and IT research scientists in Southern Africa evaluated the impact of climate change on the production and prices of important crops. A simultaneous goal within the project was to build human and institutional capacity to explore and evaluate these impacts and associated field management adaptation strategies on food prices and production.

The project team tested the accuracy of models for staple crops, using these models to estimate regional-scale food production for the period of 2070–2099 for the IPCC’s A2 climate and development scenario, identifying field-level adaptation strategies for maintaining or increasing yields, and evaluating economic impacts of climate change on different farming systems. This knowledge contributes to developing capacity across the disciplines of climate, crop, and economic modeling in the region.

SAAMIIP-1 represents the first phase of the work and has been followed by SAAMIIP-2, which commenced in 2015.

Time frames: 2 year project, May 2012 to February 2014

Funder: The Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and improvement Project (AgMIP)

Partners: Led by the South African Agriculture Research Council (SAARC), together with University of the Free State, South African Sugar Research Institute, Human Sciences Research Council South Africa and Swaziland Meteorological Services

For further details: Contact Dr Olivier Crespo