Temperature variation and its impacts on maize and cassava production in Mayukwayukwa refugee settlement

Understanding temperature variation and trend is imperative especially among the majority agriculture experts in the Sub-Saharan Africa who wish to understand the effects of climate change. Many studies on climatic variables including temperature and rainfall have been undertaken at national level in recent years in Zambia. However little has been done and known at local level as to whether or not the observed variation and trend in temperature in recent years is statistically significant. The study investigated the variation of temperature in Kaoma District in Zambia. It examined the time variation and trend in temperature observed impacts on maize and cassava production in Mayukwayukwa Refugee Settlement. In order to understand the temperature variation throughout the period 1974 to 2014, the analysis focussed on the trend of variation for temperature as the only parameter. Three climatic scenarios extending from 1974 to 2004, 1984 to 2014 and the overall period of 1974 to 2014 were developed and analyzed using regression equations computed by geo informatic tools. The range of variation of temperature computed was 4.4 0C and the annual average temperature obtained was 29 0C. The results obtained indicated that temperature in Kaoma has been on the rise by 1.9 0C which can be translated into 0.4 0C per decade. This is consistent with the reports by Sichingabula (1998) and Makano (2011) who indicated that there had been a rise in temperature in the country by 0.3 0C per decade and that this has reduced production on rain-fed crops.