Analysis of Rainfall Variability in Rwanda

In this book we analyzed rainfall data to assess rainfall variability in Rwanda for small scale farmer's strategies to climate variability and to determine the annual and seasonal trends of both rainfall and dry spells in Rwanda. It was observed that the trend of dry spells increases seasonally in the results of the analysis. The evidence from this study shows that long dry spell length will lead to poorer yields of the crops due to stressed plants which experience dry spell in their growing season. From the results, seasonal dry spell has clear impact in crop production and good yield is obtained by accurate timing of ploughing and planting period in order to plant the seeds on time which gives opportunity to use available water for each rainy season. The application of irrigation will help in maintaining crop water requirements for farmers in various areas and if irrigated areas are expanded, the total crop yields will increase.