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Mauritania - Climate

Climate change can be a good thing. At least for the arid Sahel region in Africa, where rainfall has been increasing as the world warms up. The Sahel region could go from one of the driest areas in the world to a very wet one in a couple of decades. There are some scenarios where you get not just a little more rain, but substantially more rain, and it may happen quite suddenly.

Data for the last hundred years, compiled by theJoint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, in Washington, USA, show unusually high rainfall from 1950 to 1970. This was followed by years of drought until 1990. Rainfall then returned to almost the former average, although there is now a high variability annually. Nevertheless, in the last years, rain intensity has increased.

On the surface, more rain seems like a good thing. It brings more water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use. There are some regions in central and western Sahel where increased rainfall has already come as a relief to the people and allowed ecosystems to make some recovery. But the prospect of a sudden and abrupt increase of downfall cannot be taken lightly: People need to be able to prepare for it and all the consequences it would have. It doesn’t mean just more water on average. Another rainfall regime with a proper monsoon season could also bring more flooding, which can be challenging in many ways for the local population.

Rainfed crops are closely linked to the rainfall regime and can vary considerably from year to year. The main crops, sorghum, millet and maize are grown in mixture with cowpeas, water-melon, groundnuts, Hibiscus sabdariffa etc. Although the main national means of production, rainfed crops only cover, according to the year, 13 to 30 percent of the country’s needs. About 80 percent of the production is consumed domestically. Their contribution to GDP is insignificant and tending to decrease.

The rhythm of development of irrigated areas has increased considerably in the river valley in recent years, thanks to a rapid increase in private irrigation development. This spectacular development of irrigated cropping although raising hopes involves the use of modern technology and the use of polluting products: fertilizers and pesticides. The main crop is rice. In addition some off-season crops, (sorghum, maize and horticultural crops) are grown.

Falling-flood crops system is based on exploiting the floodable areas of the Senegal River and its tributaries; the zones of water held above dams and bunds; topographic depressions. This form of agriculture is now threatened by water management rules which were imposed after the opening of the hydro-electric plant at Manatali. The main crops thus grown are sorghum and maize, traditionally mixed with water-melon and cowpeas. The oases are celebrated for their date palms. The palm groves are mainly in the regions of Adrar, Tagant, Assaba and the two Hodhs. The number of date palms is estimated to be 1,870,780 covering 5,500 hectares. In the palm groves dates are grown in association with vegetables and fodder crops (mainly lucerne). The main oasis products are: dates, horticultural crops, lucerne and, to a lesser degree, wheat, barley, sorghum and cowpea.