Adaptation potential of intercropping sorghum-cowpea systems to climate change in sudano-sahelian zone

Abstract

In the sudano-sahelian zone of Burkina Faso, farmers practice intercropping for several reasons, such as minimizing climatic risk. Our study aimed to evaluate the resilience of sorghum-cowpea intercropping systems to climate change. An experiment was conducted in 2017 and 2018 at the Saria research station. Two varieties of sorghum and two varieties of cowpea were evaluated in intercropping and sole crop. The STICS model was used and calibrated on these data. Two CO₂ pathway emission scenarios and five future climate models were used to analyze the climate impact on yields for the middle of the century (2050). The results showed that the model satisfactorily simulated the phenology and grain yield of both crops with NRMSE values within the observation errors. Consistent with observed data, simulated yields were higher in sole crop systems, followed by the ones in intercropping systems. Furthermore, our study showed that intercropping systems stabilized grain yields for most varieties with lower coefficients of variation than in sole crops systems. Overall, the results suggested that intercropping can contribute to the resilience of crops to climate change in the sudano-sahelian zone of Burkina Faso.