This study investigates the relationship between climate variables such as rainfall amount, temperature, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission and the triple dimension of food security (availability, accessibility, and utilization) in a panel of 25 sub-Saharan African countries from 1985 to 2018. After testing for cross-sectional dependence, unit root and cointegration, the study estimated the pool mean group (PMG) panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL). The empirical outcome revealed that rainfall had a significantly positive effect on food availability, accessibility, and utilization in the long run. In contrast, temperature was harmful to food availability and accessibility and had no impact on food utilization. Lastly, CO₂ emission positively impacted food availability and accessibility but did not affect food utilization. The study took a step further by integrating some additional variables and performed the panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) regression to ensure the robustness of the preceding PMG results. The control variables yielded meaningful results in most cases, so did the FMOLS and DOLS regression. The Granger causality test was conducted to determine the causal link, if any, among the variables. There was evidence of a short-run causal relationship between food availability and CO₂ emission. Food accessibility exhibited a causal association with temperature, whereas food utilization was strongly connected with temperature. CO₂ emission was linked to rainfall. Lastly, a bidirectional causal link was found between rainfall and temperature. Recommendations to the national, sub-regional, and regional policymakers are addressed and discussed.

Climate-smart agriculture is one of the most important actions for agricultural climate change adaptation, especially in Togo, a sub-Saharan African country with a fragile ecology and where agriculture is profoundly impacted by climate change. Using a multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) and a multinomial endogenous treatment effect (METE) approach, we conducted empirical research to identify the factors influencing the adoption decisions of climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) and their impact on household food security among smallholder farmers in Togo. The findings of this study revealed that the adoption of CSAPs by farmers is influenced by a range of factors, such as age, marital status, the household head’s gender, engagement in off-farm activities, level of education, farm size, agroecological zone, regional location, land ownership, distance between homestead and farm, access to credit, the presence of agricultural associations and cooperatives, and access to extension agents. On the one hand, the MESR analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between the number of adopted CSAPs and households’ food consumption score. Similarly, greater adoption of CSAPs resulted in a significant reduction in the food insecurity experience scale. On the other hand, the METE model portrayed an increase in acceptable food consumption when households adopted up to three CSAPs. Likewise, it significantly alleviated severe food insecurity. Further results based on the propensity score matching technique showed that the adoption of a crop rotation system, utilization of improved varieties of seeds, plant protection products, inorganic fertilizer, organic fertilizer, and irrigation improved adopters’ food consumption scores while reducing their level of food insecurity.

This paper explores the effect of meteorological factors such as rainfall, temperature, sunshine, wind speed, and relative humidity on the yield of maize (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) at different growth stages in Togo’s Plateau, Central, and Savannah regions. For this purpose, data from 1990 to 2019 on weather variables and maize and sorghum yields were used. The study applied Fisher’s meteorological regression and Chebyshev polynomial function. Our findings revealed that rainfall had a more beneficial than detrimental effect on maize and sorghum yield across stages and regions. Contrariwise, temperature influence was as beneficial as detrimental and more significant across all growth stages of maize and sorghum in the Savannah and Plateau regions. Furthermore, the sunshine effect on maize yield was more significant in the Central and Savannah regions, while negative on sorghum yield in all the growth stages in the Central region. Similarly, the wind speed was also beneficial and detrimental to maize and sorghum yields, although it was more significant for sorghum in Plateau and Savannah regions. Lastly, relative air humidity positively and negatively influenced maize and sorghum yields in all the growth stages and regions for maize and the Plateau and Savannah regions for sorghum. Therefore, there is a need for real-time agricultural meteorological information to help farmers plan crop production more efficiently and increase crop yield.

Understanding how ecological compensation policies reshape ecosystem service (ES) interactions is critical for sustainable watershed management. Using the Miyun Reservoir Basin in northern China as a case study, we examined the dynamic changes in land use, provision of ES, and their trade-offs and synergies (TOS) from 2010 to 2023. Four ES—food production (FP), water yield (WY), nutrient retention (nitrogen and phosphorus, NR and PR), and soil retention (SR)—were quantified using the InVEST model. Spearman’s rank correlation was employed to assess TOS at 1 km, 3 km, and township-level administrative units, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) was applied to explore spatial heterogeneity of ES TOS. Results show: (1) Land use change reflected ecological restoration efforts, with cropland decreasing by 1.69% and forest expanding by 2.16%. (2) ES exhibited spatial heterogeneity; regulating services (WY, NR, PR, SR) improved substantially after 2018, while the FP centroid shifted from downstream to upstream areas. (3) Before 2018, FP showed strong trade-offs with regulating services; following intensified policy implementation, these relationships transformed into synergies. (4) Scale effects were evident: grid-scale TOS were stable, while township-level interactions weakened due to administrative aggregation. Overall, ecological compensation reduced ES trade-offs and enhanced synergies, supporting ecological protection in key water source areas while highlighting the need for performance-based policy refinement.

Horizontal ecological compensation is a key policy instrument for incentivizing the sustained supply of ecosystem services. It is also a crucial approach for achieving the goals of ecological and environmental protection, balanced regional development, and social equity. This study explores the spatiotemporal changes in the ecosystem services of the Miyun Reservoir Basin in the context of the Beijing-Hebei transboundary horizontal ecological compensation policy. Four types of ecosystem services, namely, grain production, water yield, carbon sequestration, and soil retention, were quantitatively evaluated based on InVEST models and the spatial analysis method of ArcGIS in Miyun Reservoir Basin from 2010 to 2023. The key findings include three main points. (1) After the implementation of the horizontal compensation policy (2018–2023), the water yield, carbon sequestration, and soil retention services showed significant recovery, with a notable increase in grain production, thus validating the effectiveness of the “incentive-feedback” dynamic mechanism. Economic inputs and institutional constraints drove the regulation of human activities, which enhanced ecosystem services, while ecosystem service improvements reciprocally supported the optimization of policy, forming a virtuous cycle of “policy incentives and institutional constraints - economic inputs - green actions”. (2) The spatiotemporal heterogeneity of ecosystem services was significant. Temporally, all four services exhibited upward trends after 2018, but the reduced precipitation in 2023 triggered anomalous fluctuations in water yield and soil retention, highlighting the interference of climate change with policy outcomes. (3) Spatially, grain production migrated toward the upper reaches of the Chaohe River and Baihe River, water yield was clustered in the upper Baihe and Chaohe sub-basins, carbon sequestration was extended to the mountainous areas with the expansion of forestland, and soil retention showed a pattern of high in the middle and low in the east and west, reflecting the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of ecosystem services throughout the basin. Finally, this study proposes differentiated watershed governance and ecological compensation paths, and recommends tailored compensation standards for ecological functional zones, as well as targeted mechanisms for cropland protection, water conservation, and carbon sink enhancement. A climate-adaptive policy framework should be established to address future uncertainties and optimize Beijing-Hebei transboundary horizontal ecological compensation policies.