Author(s): Ameni Gallas, Chaima Baazaoui, Leila Chaouch
Countries in the MENA region are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In addition to severe climatic conditions, namely extremely high temperatures and limited rainfall groundwater, they are particularly affected by scarce agricultural land. Although research on the impacts of climate change in the region has been given more importance over the recent years by both researchers and policymakers, it remains insufficient, especially when compared to the significant number of climate studies addressing climate variability in Africa. In this study, changes in annual precipitation, carbon dioxide emissions and temperature are estimated to capture the impact of climate change on production and trade agriculture in 5 MENA countries through panel data and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation. The empirical results have established key relationships which have important policy implications. First, the results reveal that climate variables are negatively correlated with crop yield and agricultural trade. Second, increased fertilizer use reflects inefficient application that affects agricultural productivity. Lastly, we recommend adopting some strategies to tackle climate change, by investing in Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and similar practices.