**4. Conclusions**

Rainfall events exceeding 100 mm and flash flooding are becoming more frequent, leading to severe damage to crop production and water infrastructure. Special attention must therefore be given to the design of water control structures to ensure their flexibility and sustainability in discharging floods while avoiding overdrainage during dry spells. In this study, we analyzed the hydroclimatic conditions of the study area Dano, Burkina Faso, and the implication for rice production in the region. There was no significant increase in annual rainfall for the period of 1970–2013; however, an increasing delay in the onset of the rainy season (with a decreasing pre-humid season duration) was observed. This causes di fficulties in predicting the onset due to the high temporal variability of rainfall in the studied region. As a result, a warming trend was observed for the past 40 years, raising questions about its negative impact on very intensive rice cultivation packages. During the rainy season (August to October), the average minimum and maximum temperatures increased by 0.031 and 0.016 ◦C yr<sup>−</sup>1, respectively, comparable to global observations. The maximum relative humidity decreased due to this increase in temperature, while the sunshine duration also decreased. Farmers have both positive and negative consensual perceptions of climatic hazards. The HBV hydrological model indicated no significant increase in water discharge; however, the total 10-day water level observed between the 11th of September and 20th of October, corresponding to the critical flowering and grain filling phases of rice growth, showed an increasing trend for the period 1971–2018.

The sowing of rice during the 10–30 June has been identified as optimal in order to benefit from the higher surface water flows, which can be used to irrigate and meet the crop water requirements during the critical phase outlined. The installation of co fferdams to increase water levels would be beneficial, subject to them not hindering channel drainage during peak flow, although water flow after the 21st of September was generally insu fficient to be deemed an issue. To ensure that irrigation at the end of the rice cycle is su fficient, di fferent mobile co fferdam types require testing to ensure their efficiency and acceptability in terms of cost and the capacity of farmers to implement the technology. The results of this study will be useful to rural communities, as well as decision makers, in framing agricultural risk managemen<sup>t</sup> in the study region and devising policy for rice intensification in lowland areas. Further data collection is required to improve the HBV model output and to account for climate and land change e ffects on rice production in Dano, Burkina Faso.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.Y.B. and G.S.; methodology, A.Y.B., G.S., J.H., and B.D.; formal analysis, A.Y.B., J.H., Y.Y., G.S., and B.D.; writing—original draft preparation, review, and editing, A.Y.B., J.H., G.S., Y.Y., B.L., J.L.F., L.O.S., J.E.T., and B.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the French Agency for Development (AFD) under the auspices of the AGRICORA initiative and GENERIA project. They thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for supporting the WASCAL program.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
