Climate and crop yields in Northern Africa (Senegal,Sudan, Tunisia)

The study attempts to relate crop yields to climatic events in the Sahelian Zone of Africa. The examples are taken from Senegal, Sudan and Tunisia. Theinvestigation was centered to examine closely the relations between weather and crop yields, that means first of all to analyze the influence of the inter-annual variations of the weather on the yields. The aim was to reveal the dependency of the temporal variability of the yields (1960–1980) on the climatic parameters during the different phenological stages of the plants. This analysis made it possible to develop models of prognosis for different cultivated plants (food crops basically). In general suitable models of forecasts could be established for all food crops. An early and exact prediction of harvest losses or surpluses could reduce negative effects for the respective population in unfavourable, and induce food storage in favourable years.