World climate is projected to be more harmful and unforeseeable. A threefold combination of temperature, precipitation and potential evapotranspiration leads to climate change with a negative effect on staple food crop production. To understand the sensitivity of staple food crop yield to future change in climate, this paper uses the feasible generalized least square (FGLS) and heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation (HAC) consistent standard error techniques function to quantify the effects of climate variables on the mean and variance of crop yields. Data from FAOSTAT website and national institutions such as temperature, precipitation and crop areas cultivated for period 1961-2015 for Benin country are used. Climate variables are computed according to each crop growing season. The results showed that climate change could significantly influence the mean crop yields and could significantly affect the crop yield variability. The contribution of climate variables to crop yield varies across staple crop yields and they were predicted to decrease about 2025. In order to ensure food availability in the context of climate change, support to agricultural sector and especially to staple food crops production should be focused on seeds improvement by generating, developing and extending drought and flood-tolerant varieties. The results also implicate the promoting of irrigated agriculture.

This research analyzes the economic effects of climate change-induced crop yield losses in Benin. As agriculture is a large sector in Benin, the climate change-induced crop yield losses are expected to affect the entire economy as well as household welfare in both rural and urban areas. The paper applies a dynamic general equilibrium model and simulates productivity shocks in the agricultural sector derived from climate change scenarios for Benin. The findings show that climate change-induced crop yield losses reduce domestic agricultural outputs by 4.4% and the nonagricultural output by 0.9% on average by 2025. While export supply decrease by 25.5%, import demand increases by 4.9% on average by 2025. As price of labour and capital decline, household income drop for all household groups by 2.5% on average. Ultimately, household welfare decline for all household groups by 2.7% on average. Rural and particularly poor households are projected to experience the worst adverse effects of climate change-induced crop yield losses. The results show that without adaptive strategies to cope with climate change, economic growth and household welfare will decline even further by 2035 and 2045. Subsequently, the paper suggests that adaptation strategies are needed not only at the national level to overcome the projected negative effects on macroeconomic indicators, but also at household level to enhance the adaptative capacity of households, especially the poor households living in rural areas.In Benin, previous studies showed that yields of major food crops are likely to decline with implications for food security, farm incomes, and household welfare [8,9]. The high potential impact of climate change in Benin is due to the size of the agricultural sector in the economy. As of 2016, agriculture accounts for 23% of the Benin national GDP, 83% of total merchandise exports, and 41% of total employment [10]. Hence, the disruptive effects of climate change in the agricultural sector are felt beyond that sector in the entire economy. There are both direct and indirect effects of climate change on the agricultural sector. Direct effects include changes in agricultural outputs. Indirect effects encompass commodity and factor price changes affecting ultimately household incomes and expenditures.In this paper, the economy-wide implications of climate change in Benin are analyzed and quantified. While vulnerability and adaptation aspects of climate change have been studied in Benin [11][12][13], little is known about its economy-wide effects. In order to capture these effects, the study employs a single-country computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The CGE framework allows to examine the interdependent links between supply and demand of agricultural products, on the one hand, and between agricultural markets and the rest of the economy, on the other hand [14]. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the existing literature on the economy-wide effects of climate change, while Section 3 describes the ...

Despite the numerous work conducted on integrated crop-livestock systems, very little is known about factors determining farmers' trend to integrate. Our study aimed at a socioeconomic characterization of endogenous crop-livestock integration in Benin and identification of determinants of farmers' decision to use these practices. Two hundred and forty farmers were surveyed in three agro-ecological regions randomly selected. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on farmer's characteristics, production factors and agriculture and breeding by-products valorization practices. On the basis of main links between both productions, three integration levels (no integration, NI: 36%; partial integration, PI: 55%; total integration, TI: 9%) were identified and characterized according to socioeconomic characteristics of farmers. Then the multinomial logistic regression technique was used to predict the integration level of a given farmer in function of its socioeconomic characteristics. The three integration levels differ significantly (p<0.001) according to variables such as membership in farmers' association, educational level, weight of agricultural experience, farming equipment and size of herds. The decision by a farmer to choose the total integration type significantly depends (p <0.001) on the size of his cattle herd, his membership in farmers' association, the weight of his agricultural experience and his equipment value. Thus, integration is a practice used by small farmers with good experience in agriculture. Strategies for improving integration of cropping and breeding are to motivated farmers for cattle keeping and membership in an association.

Present study was conducted to analyze the soybean production system in Benin. Data were collected from 324 soybean producers selected from the three major soybean-producing agro-ecological areas i.e. agro-ecological zone 3 (southern Borgou), agro-ecological zone 4 (West Atacora) and agro-ecological zone 5 (Cotton zone of the Centre of Benin). A participatory research approach with group discussions followed by individual interviews was carried out for extracting the information from respondents. Information mainly referred to the socio-demographic characteristics of soybean producers, production practices, extent of yields and constraints. Descriptive statistics were then used to analyze the data. Ordered Probit regression was further carried out to assess the determinants of soybean yield levels in Benin. Results of this study revealed that soybean producers of the three agro ecological zones have most of the common demographic characteristics. They equally revealed that farmers do not follow correct soybean cropping practices. Improved seeds, plant density, fertilizers, fallow, and sex of farmers have significantly (P<0.05, P<0.01, P<0.001) influenced the yields of soybean in Benin. Within the context of sustainable agricultural production practices, it is recommended to develop appropriate technologies for soybean cultivation. The extension services should focus more on the appropriate combination of input resources which are found to contribute more to the soybean production.

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