The Role of Climate Variability on Maize Production. Evidence From Kenya

Abstract

The harsh climate effects continue to adversely affect Kenya’s agricultural sector. Motivated by this development, this study examined the role of climate variability on maize production in the country. Secondary time series data spanning 43 years from 1980-2022 obtained from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics for maize output, maize output prices and the Gross Domestic Per capita variates and the from the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal for climatic variates of rainfall and mean temperature was run on a Nerlovian partial adjustment model. This model takes stock of the slow adjustment process. OLS regression show that rainfall and maize out price have a significant effect on maize yield. Temperature and GDP per capita income had no significant influence on maize yield. This study recommends climate sensitive measures for mitigating and adopting climate change effects be put into place for motivating farmers to increase their production.