Impact of Agriculture on the Oueme Basin in Benin

Dossou, Jacqueline Fifame; Li, Xu Xiang; Kouhoundji, Naboua Kader; Vissin, Expédit Wilfrid

Impact of Agriculture on the Oueme Basin in Benin

2021

Dossou, Jacqueline Fifame | Li, Xu Xiang | Kouhoundji, Naboua Kader | Vissin, Expédit Wilfrid

Human activities constitute the source of disturbance in ecosystems. The Oueme basin, exposed to intensive agriculture practices, mainly cotton and cowpea, is considered a vulnerable area. The current study assessed the impact of agriculture on this basin. To do this, using thirteen indicators, grouped into four factors, we evaluated the basin vulnerability by establishing a social vulnerability index (SVI) between 2000 and 2016. Later, based on study outcomes, we were able to identify the crop that threatened this basin. The reliability of vulnerability assessment requires the multicriteria method to accurately determine the relative degree of influence of study indicators, reflected in their weighting coefficient. Therefore, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was applied to indicators. Results revealed an increase in the rate of SVI. According to the spatial distribution, the closer to the north, the greater the SVI. Regardless of the study year, the northern Oueme basin was consistently identified as vulnerable, while the central basin was stable. Vulnerable and stable areas accounted for 12.01% and 34.97%, while they accounted for 14.22% and 13.72% for 2016. A significant decrease in the stable area and an increase in the vulnerable area were detected. Based on this study classification, the slightly vulnerable area (34.97%, also named stable) was identified as the largest for 2000 against the mildly vulnerable area (28.19%) for 2016. Climate has experienced significant changes, and the cotton crop was identified as a threat to the Oueme basin.

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