Abstract

Patrice Zidouemba

This paper is an attempt to assess the impact of climate change on households’ food security in Burkina Faso using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model in which we incorporate a random parameter that captures the effect of climate fluctuations on crop yields and on international food prices. The CGE model has been calibrated to reproduce past trends of Burkina Faso’s economy. The results of our simulations show that the impact of increased climatic shocks, due to climate change is felt more by rural poor who highly depend on agriculture. However, given the strong relationship between agriculture and the rest of the economy, low income households in urban areas are also affected. Conversely, the impact of climatic shocks is not as significant for urban non-poor given the level and source of revenue as well as the diversification of their consumption. The results also illustrate the complexity of the mechanisms at work in the explanation of a food crisis occurrence.