Author(s)

Yousif Elnour Yagoub^1,2,3*, Zhongqin Li¹, Omer Said Musa², Muhammad Naveed Anjum⁴, Feiteng Wang¹, Zhang Bo³

¹State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences/Tian Shan Glaciological Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, CAS, Lanzhou, China.
²Department of Forest Protection and Conservation, University of Khartoum-Faculty of Forestry, Shambat, Sudan.
³College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China.
⁴Division of Hydrology Water-Land Resources, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, CAS, Lanzhou, China.

The aims of this research were to investigate the impacts of climate variations on land use policies, food security and vegetation cover in Gadarif State (eastern Sudan) during 1961 to 2013. Analysis of precipitation and temperature time series revealed that the annual precipitation was decreasing while the temperature was increased in the study area. Precipitation was decreasing at a rate of −50.3 mm/10a, while the temperature was increasing at a rate of 0.02°C/10a. The result of both SPEI and SPI showed that the Gadarif State has been changed to a high frequency of drought during 1961-2013. Sorghum yield showed a significant positive relationship with precipitation during July and October (CC = 0.364 and 0.321, respectively), moreover, a significant positive relationship between Sesame yield and precipitation was observed during July (CC = 0.335). A significant negative relationship between Sorghum yield and mean temperature was observed during the rainy season (July to October) with CC = −0.278. The yield productivity of Sorghum and Sesame had decreased significantly (from more than 800 kg/ha in the 1960s to less than 200 kg/ha in 2000s for Sorghum, while 500 kg/ha in 1960s to 100 kg/ha in 2000s for Sesame). The Mechanized Rain-fed Agriculture (MRA) area of Sorghum and Sesame in the Gadarif State had been increased from 1,058,241 ha to 2,799,655 ha during 1961 to 2013. Thus, we ultimately suggest that in the Gadarif State, policy makers must strive for an increase in yield per unit area by using sufficient fertilizers along with the gradual increment in tendencies of grain production through expansion of the cultivated area.

Climate Change, Land Use Policy Change, Food Security, Gadarif State

Yagoub, Y. , Li, Z. , Musa, O. , Anjum, M. , Wang, F. and Bo, Z. (2017) Investigation of Climate and Land Use Policy Change Impacts on Food Security in Eastern Sudan, Gadarif State. Journal of Geographic Information System, 9, 546-557. doi: 10.4236/jgis.2017.95034.