Arnaud Ouédraogo^1,, Tiraogo Prince Florian Bouda¹, Dial Niang², Hamma Yacouba²

For several decades, Burkina Faso, including other Sahelian countries, has been facing a number of climate-related issues. As a matter of fact, due to underdevelopment and inappropriate response strategies, the situation is worsening. This study, aiming at understanding the impacts of climate variability, was conducted in the commune of Sourgou in Burkina Faso. The approach consisted in analyzing climate data from surveys sampled with 422 agricultural households. Land use data from 1989, 2002 to 2019 were processed to better understand soil dynamics in the study area. Results revealed a change in the duration of the rainy season with a late start and an early end. It also included the variability of climate features and an increasingly recurrent occurrence of pockets of drought exceeding 10 days. The analysis of land use dynamics showed a regression of vegetation cover (18.26%), an increase in bare soil (15.75%), mixed crops (44.88%) and a decrease in single rainfed crops (45.64%). Adaptation strategies adopted range from soil conservation techniques such as the zaï technique (21.6%), stone cordons (67.1%), biological techniques such as mulching (31.5%) to mitigating adaptive activities such as irrigated farming (61.1%). Considering socio-economic, political and environmental issues raised in line with the adoption of the adaptation strategies, enormous efforts are to be made in developing common regulations and local adaptation techniques for farmers to consistently apprehend the issue.

climate variability, apprehension, adaptation strategies, resilience, Burkina Faso