Drought Impacts on the Crop Sector and Adaptation Options in Burkina Faso: A Gender-Focused Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

The crop sector in Burkina Faso has been facing recurrent droughts since 1970. This study analyzes the impacts of droughts and adaptation options such as the use of irrigation capacity development methods, integrated soil management and drought-tolerant crop varieties on the crop sector. Indeed, we focus on the consequences of agricultural droughts on economic growth and employment and on the gender dimension of household poverty. Using a gendered dynamic computable general equilibrium model linked to a microsimulation model, we conduct simulations of various drought scenarios (mild, moderate and severe). We show that the mild, moderate and intense droughts experienced by Burkina Faso over the past ten years have negatively affected the country’s economic performance and considerably degraded the welfare of its households. The gross domestic product has fallen by 3.0% in the short term and 3.3% in the long term due to intense droughts. Moreover, the number of poor people is growing faster in male-headed households than in female-headed households. Given the large female population in both groups of households, women bear the brunt of droughts. These results also demonstrate how these negative impacts could worsen in the future with the recurrence of intense droughts due to the threat of global climate change. We find that Burkina Faso has room to reduce the negative impacts by adopting drought-tolerant crop varieties, integrated soil management approaches or expanding their irrigation capacity.