Idrissa Saidou Mahamadou

Malaria remains a major public health challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, affecting household labor and economic productivity. In agricultural communities, the disease can disrupt farm management and reduce profitability, particularly for labor-intensive crops such as rice. This study investigates the effects of malaria on the management of family rice farms in the urban commune of Gaya. The methodological framework combined descriptive statistics, comparative analyses across rainy and dry seasons, and econometric modeling. Data were collected from 104 rice-farming households. Results demonstrate that both the average number of individuals affected by malaria and the associated healthcare expenditures are substantially higher during the rainy season. In the rainy season, health-related costs markedly increase total production expenses, causing value added and the profitability index to decline sharply (from 0.423 to 0.095). In contrast, during the dry season, despite higher revenues, the impact of health expenditures remains marginal, with only a slight reduction in the profitability index (from 3.26 to 3.22). Econometric analysis further reveals that, in the rainy season, rice farm profitability is significantly and negatively influenced by the number of lost workdays, malaria prevalence, and cultivated area (p<0.05). Each additional workday lost due to malaria reduces farm profitability by approximately USD 93, corresponding to a 3.6% decline relative to baseline profitability. These findings underscore malaria’s dual burden on rice-farming households: it reduces labor availability while increasing financial costs, particularly during the rainy season when labor demands peak. Strategies to mitigate malaria could therefore improve both health and economic outcomes for smallholder rice farmers.

The Sahel region is projected to be highly impacted by the more frequent hazards associated with climate change, including increased temperature, drought and flooding. This systematic review examined the evidence for climate change-related health consequences in the Sahel. The databases used were Medline (PubMed), Embase (Ovid), Web of Science (Clarivate) and CABI Global Health. Hand searches were also conducted, which included directly engaging Sahelian researchers and hand-searching in the African Journals Online database. Of the 4153 studies found, 893 were identified as duplicates and the remaining 3260 studies were screened (title and abstract only) and then assessed for eligibility. A total of 81 studies were included in the systematic review. Most studies focused on vector-borne diseases, food security, nutrition and heat-related stress. Findings suggest that mosquito distribution will shift under different climate scenarios, but this relationship will not be linear with temperature, as there are other variables to consider. Food insecurity, stunting (chronic malnutrition) and heat-related mortality are likely to increase if no action is taken owing to the projected impact of climate change on environmental factors and agriculture. Seventy-one per cent of manuscripts ( n = 58) had first authors from institutions in North America or Europe, of which 39.7% ( n = 23) included co-authors from African institutions.

In developing countries, poor agricultural performance is largely responsible for the recurring phenomenon of food insecurity. Crops have low productivity due to many constraints not only socioeconomic but also biotic and abiotic. Research has shown that productivity is influenced by health, and the present study specifically analyzes the impact of malaria on agricultural production of households in the river valley. This article provides the results of a prospective cohort study. A total of 180 households were followed over a period of one year. The study shows that malaria affects the performance of agricultural households. In fact the negative impact of malaria on irrigated production is statically significant (P=0.000) there is a strong negative correlation between malaria and irrigated production (-0.757). In other hand the relative risk (3.17) calculated in the 95% confidence interval (CI) shows the presence of a positive association between catastrophic expenditure and agricultural yield with a value of P (12.10-7) which is significantly lower at 0.001. The average cumulative incidence of malaria in Households and the period during which the sick leave occurred also influences the performance.