Analysis of Dry-Spells in the Western Maize-Growing Areas of South Africa

Crop yield in rainfed agriculture is directly influenced by rainfall patterns, which vary from one growing season to another. The failure or success of such crops can depend on the amount and distribution of the rainfall and, particularly, on the occurrence of dry- and wet-spells during the growing season. The aim of this study was to investigate the initial and conditional probabilities of dry-spell pentads using the Markov chain model in the western maize-growing region of South Africa, as well as to determine the direction and magnitude of dry-spell trends using the Mann–Kendal monotonic trend test and Sen’s slope estimator. The results revealed that all the rainfall districts are affected by dry-spells during the mid-January-to-end-of-February period. This finding is significant because maize is usually planted during late November to late December in this region, and dry-spells may coincide with the flowering stage of the maize crop. When dry-spells occur during the flowering stage of maize, they significantly affect yield. The Mann–Kendal analysis revealed that most of the districts (7 out of 11 districts) have a decreasing trend in dry-spell occurrences except for districts 86, 87, 91 and 93. However, the decreasing trend is statistically insignificant in all the rainfall districts, and, thus, this reveals that there is no change or there is a minor change in dry-spell occurrence across all the districts. Furthermore, Sen’s slope estimator signalled a decrease in dry-spell magnitude or occurrence over the study period. Information from this study will inform farmers of the various districts regarding changes in their particular risk profile for dry-spells.