Abstract
Abstract Climate change is expected to affect the livelihood of rural farmers in South Africa, particularly the smallholder farmers, due to their overwhelming dependence on rain-fed agriculture. This study examines smallholder farmers' perception of climate change, the adaptation strategies adopted and factors that influence their adaptive decisions. The unit of data collection was household interview and focus group discussion. Climate data for the Olifants catchment (1986–2015) were also collected to validate farmers' perception of climate change with actual climate trend. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, Mann–Kendall trend, Sen's slope estimator and multinomial logit regression model. Results revealed that smallholder farmers are aware of climate change (98%), their perception of these changes aligns with actual meteorological data, as the Mann–Kendall test confirms a decreasing inter-annual rainfall trend (−0.172) and an increasing temperature trend (0.004). These changes in temperature and precipitation have prompted the adoption of various adaptation responses, among which the use of improved seeds, application of chemical fertilizer and changing planting dates were the most commonly practised. The main barriers to the adoption of adaptation strategies were lack of access to credit facility, market, irrigation, information about climate change and lack of extension service. The implication of this study is to provide information to policy-makers on the current adaptation responses adopted by farmers and ways in which their adaptive capacity can be improved in order to ensure food security.
Highlights
Sustainable development in Africa is threatened by the impact of climate change, as it puts additional stress on socio-economic and environmental resources required for sustaining livelihood (Akanbi et al 2021)
A positive value of Qi indicates an increasing trend, while a negative value of Qi represents a downward or decreasing trend of time series data. Results from this analysis highlighted the nature of the linkages between the demographic characteristics of smallholder farmers in the Olifants catchment, their perception of climate change and the extent of alignment between farmers’ perception of climatic trends and actual meteorological data
The analysis revealed the level of vulnerability of farmers to climate risk, the most favoured adaptation measures employed in response to climate threats and the factors determining farmers’ choice of adaptation
Summary
Sustainable development in Africa is threatened by the impact of climate change, as it puts additional stress on socio-economic and environmental resources required for sustaining livelihood (Akanbi et al 2021). In many developing countries and regions, climate variability and change are projected to adversely impact agricultural production and access to food The negative consequence of these changes is expected to greatly affect the livelihood of poor and rural farmers, due to their overwhelming reliance on climate-sensitive parameters (i.e. temperature and precipitation). Extreme climate events, such as droughts, floods, heatwave, storms and soil degradation, increase the uncertainty of agricultural production. The adverse impact of these changes is mostly felt in regions where rain-fed agricultural production is the main staple food, threatening food security (Akanbi et al 2021)
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