Abstract
Understanding climate variability is key to the reduction of human foot print and communal farming production. This study evaluates climate change awareness and perceptions of climate variability among the Eastern Cape communal farmers. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 130 heads of households across Ntabankulu local municipality for participation in the study. Data were collected through a pre-tested questionnaire. The study revealed that about 70% of the interviewed households knew about climate change. On the other hand, 80% agreed that the climate is changing, 70% were defiant that the change is caused by human beings and approximately 25% were convinced that the climate change is as a result of natural causes. The respondents fail to construe the causes of climate change and past trends climate. Factor analysis findsage, gender and years of education as having a positive significant effect on understanding climate change. The paper recommended for an extension service that would encourage the elderly and the educated to transfer information on climate change. South African weather services, extension workers, councilors, civil societies and other development agencies have a lot to learn from the investigated households. Key words: Awareness, perceived changes, climate change, seasonal changes.
Highlights
This study evaluates climate change awareness and perceptions of climate variability among the Eastern Cape communal farmers
Climate change refers to changes that alter the composition of the global atmosphere and which are in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (United Nations, 1992)
62% indicated that they practise farming either in the form of livestock husbandry, crop farming or operating a garden. This group was under-represented in the survey population when compared to Statistics South Africa (2012) data, which indicated people participating in agriculture to be 37% of Eastern Cape’s rural provincial population
Summary
Climate change refers to changes that alter the composition of the global atmosphere and which are in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (United Nations, 1992) This phenomenon is undermining the achievement of the millennium development goals (MDGs) and the international communities’ efforts to reduce extreme hunger and poverty. The largest losses are predicted to occur among rural households and smallholder farmers in Eastern Cape. These are more vulnerable due to predominance of rain fed agriculture, wide ignorance of the phenomenon, low adoption rate of adaptation measures and because of the low adaptive capacity. The losses will range from crop failure, livestock death, floods and other associated changes
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