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Climate change is one of the major challenges of agricultural production in many
developing countries. It complements some other development challenges like civil unrests,
environmental degradation and HIV&AIDS as one of the major obstacles to Africa’s socioeconomic
development. African policy makers have now realized the enormity of economic
consequences of climate change, and are coming up with mechanisms for reducing vulnerability
through adaptive mechanisms. These would reduce the problem of food insecurity since
agriculture is the dominant sector in many African countries. Similarly, these efforts are
justifiable given that high proportion of the labor force is found in agriculture and other related
activities. This paper analysed the impact of sustainable land use on monthly food shortages
among farmers in selected African countries. Data used for this study were collected by the
CGIAR’s Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) as
baseline survey between late 2010 to early 2011. Five sites were randomly selected from East
Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), while in West Africa, five sites were each
selected from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal. A total of 1398 farm households
were sampled from the two sub-regions using structured questionnaire. Data were analysed with
descriptive statistics and Negative Binomial (NB) regression model. The results showed that
majority of the farmers from Senegal had no formal education, while average numbers of months
when farm households were unable to meet households’ food needs were highest in Ethiopia
(6.55), Tanzania (5.36) and Ghana (4.44). The results from Negative binomial regression
showed that monthly food shortages significantly increased (p<0.05) with exposure to climatic
shocks, introduction of new crops, late planting, use of mulching and stopping irrigation. It
however reduced significantly (p<0.05) with food cropland owned, vegetable cultivation, fish
production, remittance income, access to formal and informal loans, income from renting land,
stop planting a variety, improved irrigation and use of integrated crop management. It was
concluded that the farmers were adjusting their farming systems in response to climate change
and efforts at promoting sustainable farming system will enhance their adaptive capacity and
food security given the current climatic changes.