Effect of Climate Variability on Productivity of Crop in Gicumbi District of Rwanda, (2007-2022)

Climate change has been raising concerns about potential changes to crop yields and production systems. The focus of the present study is to assess the impact of climate variability on food crop yield in the Gicumbi district of Rwanda. Independent Climate variables like rainfall and temperature, and dependent beans and Irish potatoes production data over the past fifteen years i.e. a period from 2007 to 2022 have been used to investigate the evidence of climate variability in Gicumbi, changes in mentioned food crop production, and the likelihood of relationship between crop production of food crops and these climatic variables. Therefore, this research analyzed the effect of climate variability on the productivity of food crops (beans and Irish potatoes) in the Gicumbi district. The specific objectives are to analyze the climate variability in the Gicumbi district from 2007 up to 2022, to assess the productivity of beans and Irish potatoes in the same period, and to determine the extent to which climate variability influences the production of beans and Irish potatoes. The researcher used a descriptive research design. The total population of this study is from 3 selected sectors of Gicumbi totaling 91,054 residents and the sample size is 204 respondents selected using a convenient sampling technique. The primary data was collected using a questionnaire and key informant interviews. The regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between climate variability and the changes in food crop production in study areas. Specifically, regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between temperature and rainfall variability and food crops (beans & Irish potatoes) production in the focus District.