Impacts of Floods on Agriculture-Dependent Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Assessment from Multiple Geo-Ecological Zones

Roland Azibo Balgah, Kester Azibo Ngwa, Gertrud Rosa Buchenrieder () and Jude Ndzifon Kimengsi
Additional contact information
Roland Azibo Balgah: College of Technology, The University of Bamenda, Bambili P.O. Box 39, Cameroon
Kester Azibo Ngwa: Higher Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bamenda University of Science and Technology, Nkwen P.O. Box 277, Cameroon
Gertrud Rosa Buchenrieder: Institute of Sociology and Economics, RISK Research Center, Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBwM), 85577 Neubiberg, Germany
Jude Ndzifon Kimengsi: Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Technische Universität Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Surging extreme events, particularly floods, have stimulated growing research on their epidemiology, management, and effects on livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), especially for agriculture-dependent households. Unfortunately, the topical literature is still characterized by independent, isolated cases, with limited relevance to understanding common flood effects across geographical space and time. We bridge this knowledge gap by analyzing the effects of multiple cases of flash, coastal and riverine-cum-pluvial (‘complex’) floods on agriculture-dependent livelihoods in three (Sudano Sahelian, Coastal and Western Highlands) geo-ecological zones in Cameroon. The analysis makes use of a sample of 2134 flood victims (1000 of them in the Sudano-Sahelian, 242 in the Coastal, and 892 in the Western Highlands zones) of 26 independent community floods: 11 in the Sudano-Sahelian, 3 in the Coastal, and 12 in the Western Highlands zone. Irrespective of flood type and geo-ecology, agriculture-dependent livelihoods were gravely impaired. However, the impacts on livelihoods and public goods (such as road or communication systems) significantly varied in the different geo-ecological zones. The study concludes with the need to include context-specificity in the flood impact assessment equation, while identifying common effects, as is the case with agriculture in this study. We emphasize the need to up-scale and comparatively analyze flood effects across space and time to better inform flood management policies across SSA.

Keywords: floods; agriculture-dependent livelihoods; impacts; geo-ecological zones; sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/2/334/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/2/334/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:2:p:334-:d:1047449

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().