Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Dec;18(1):2513719.
doi: 10.1080/16549716.2025.2513719. Epub 2025 Jul 14.

Assessing heat exposure and its effects on farmer health, harvest yields, and nutrition: a study protocol for Burkina Faso and Kenya

Sandra Barteit  1 , Windpanga Aristide Ouédraogo  2 , Charlotte Müller  1 , Pascal Zabré  2 , Issouf Traoré  2   3 , Valentin Boudo  2 , Ali Sié  1   2 , Guillaume Compaoré  2 , Lucienne Ouèrmi  2 , Stephen Munga  4 , David Obor  4 , Aditi Bunker  1 , Hanns-Christian Gunga  5 , Kristine Belesova  6 , Till Bärnighausen  1   7   8 , Jonas Franke  9 , Maximilian Schwarz  9 , Martina Anna Maggioni  5   10 , Rainer Sauerborn  1
Affiliations

Assessing heat exposure and its effects on farmer health, harvest yields, and nutrition: a study protocol for Burkina Faso and Kenya

Sandra Barteit et al. Glob Health Action. 2025 Dec.

Abstract

Rising temperatures in Africa present an increasing threat to agricultural productivity and public health, particularly among subsistence farming communities reliant on rain-fed agriculture. Heat exposure can impair farmers' work capacity, disrupt harvests, and heighten health risks, especially for young children vulnerable to undernutrition. The Heat to Harvest (H2H) study investigates how environmental heat exposure influences farmers' physiological and behavioral responses, and how these in turn affect harvest yields and child nutrition. It also examines differences in labor performance and recovery between households with and without cool roof coatings, although this intervention is not the central focus. H2H is designed as a prospective cohort study nested within two Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in Nouna, Burkina Faso, and Siaya, Kenya. The study integrates environmental monitoring (temperature and humidity sensors used to compute Wet Bulb Globe Temperature), biometric data (via wearables tracking heart rate, temperature, physical activity, energy expenditure, and sleep), and GPS tracking (capturing spatial mobility and labor duration). The study is embedded within a larger cluster-randomized controlled trial, facilitating comparative analysis under varying thermal conditions. Findings will provide evidence-based insights into how climate-related heat stress affects health and agricultural outcomes, supporting the development of targeted adaptation strategies to enhance resilience, health, and food security in vulnerable farming communities.

Keywords: Burkina Faso; Climate change; Stig Wall; Sub-Saharan Africa; adaptation; agricultural productivity; child nutrition; heat stress; outdoor worker capacity; remote sensing; wearable technologies.

Plain language summary

Main focus This methods paper outlines the approach to studying heat exposure’s impact on subsistence farmers’ work capacity in Burkina Faso and Kenya, and its effects on crop yields and child nutrition.Added knowledge It introduces a novel framework combining wearable technology and remote sensing to assess the physiological and agricultural effects of heat stress in vulnerable farming communities.Global health impact for policy and action The study aims to inform climate-resilient agricultural policies and heat-adaptation strategies to protect farmer health and ensure food security in regions facing increasing heat exposure.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Conceptual framework of the H2H study.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Pathway of the H2H study, following four health impact pathways: in this study we focus mainly on heat exposure, but also consider the variable of rainfall, its impact on work capacity, physiological responses in farmers, outcomes on harvest yield, and nutritional status in children under age 5.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Study area (health demographic Surveillance System (HDSS)) with the H2H village in the Kossi province. For the study area of the Siaya HDSS, refer to [43]. Map was generated using QGIS (version 3.16.14; QGIS development team, 2021). QGIS is an open-source geographic information System that supports viewing, editing, and analysis of geospatial data. The software can be accessed and downloaded at https://qgis.org.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Automated weather station with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) connectivity located within the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) site, recording real-time data on rainfall, temperature, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Overview of exposure and outcome variables within the Heat to Harvest (H2H) study, and their sequential and cascading framework.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gerald CN, Mark WR, Jawoo K, et al. Climate change: impact on agriculture and costs of adaptation. Intl Food Policy researchinst. 2009:30.
    1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) . Editor. Annex I: glossary. In: global warming of 15°C: IPCC special report on impacts of global warming of 15°C above pre-industrial levels in context of strengthening response to climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Internet]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2022. p. 541–19. Available from: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/global-warming-of-15c/annex-i-gloss...
    1. Longueville FD, Hountondji YC, Kindo I, et al. Long-term analysis of rainfall and temperature data in Burkina Faso (1950–2013). Int J Climatol. 2016;36:4393–4405. doi: 10.1002/joc.4640 - DOI
    1. Kogo BK, Kumar L, Koech R.. Climate change and variability in Kenya: a review of impacts on agriculture and food security. Environ Dev Sustain. 2021. Jan 1;23:23–43. doi: 10.1007/s10668-020-00589-1 - DOI
    1. Douxchamps S, Van Wijk MT, Silvestri S, et al. Linking agricultural adaptation strategies, food security and vulnerability: evidence from West Africa. Reg Environ Change. 2016. Jun 1;16:1305–1317. doi: 10.1007/s10113-015-0838-6 - DOI