PHD IN AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES CYCLE XXXII Coordinator Prof. Pietramellara Giacomo CLIMATE RESILIENT CROPS IN HOT-SPOT REGIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE THE CASE OF QUINOA IN BURKINA FASO Academic Discipline AGR 02 I declare that this PhD thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. Correspondence: Jorge Alvar-Beltrán, Department of Agronomy, Food, Environmental and Forestry Sciences and Technology (DAGRI), University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144, Florence, Italy. Email address:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-2755741 TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………………… p.1 ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………. p.5 RIASSUNTO……………………………………………………………………..…….………. p.6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………… p.9 LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………………. p.11 LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………….….…………………. p.13 LIST OF ACRONOMYS……………………………………………………………………… p.15 LIST OF ACRONOMYS: UNITS & OTHERS………………………………..……………. p.16 CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background information………………………………………………………….…..…….. p.17 1.1.1. Observed and projected regional changes in precipitation……………..…………… p.17 1.1.2. Observed and projected regional changes in temperature…………………..………. p.18 1.1.3. The vulnerability of Burkina Faso to climate change………………….……..……... p.19 1.1.4. Agricultural adaptation to climate change………………………….………..……… p.19 1.2. Justification of the topic and gaps in literature ………….………………………………… p.21 1.3. Research questions and problems addressed………………………………………………. p.22 1.4. Research aims and objectives………………...………………...………………………….. p.23 1.5. Structure of the research…………………………………………………………………… p.24 1.6.