Climate change and adaptation of small-scale cattle and sheep farmers

Abstract

The study was conducted in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa during the period 2005 to 2009 to investigate factors that affected the decision of small-scale farmers who kept cattle and sheep. The Binary Logistic Regression model was used to investigate farmers’ decision. The results implied that a large number of socio-economic variables affected the decision of farmers on adaptation to climate change. It was concluded that the most significant factors affecting climate change and adaptation were non-farm income, type of weather perceived, livestock ownership, distance to weather stations, distance to input markets, adaptation strategies and annual average temperature. It was recommended that a comparison of the decision to adapt to climate change be investigated further in other areas of similar agro-ecological conditions to ascertain the findings of the study. Key words: Climate change, small-scale cattle and sheep farming, Binary logistic model.