Abstract
The adoption of climate-smart irrigation technologies amongst smallholder farmers generally remains low beside their role in combating food and nutrition security in a society and in climate change adaptation strategies. This study identified the factors influencing smallholder farmers’ decision to adopt Climate Smart Irrigation Technologies (CSIT) in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Data were collected through the completion of a face-to-face structured questionnaire by 100 smallholder farmers selected through convenience and purposive sampling. A probit regression and OLS model were used to identify factors that influence the smallholder farmer’s decision to adopt CSIT and the level of adoption. The results indicated that only 46% of the smallholder farmers adopted climate-smart irrigation technologies and suggested that adoption is influenced positively by factors such as gender, age, district, farm size, staple food production and knowledge on CSIT. There is an urgent need for related stakeholders to transform the smallholder farmer subsector through improved extension services, training, adopting resilient crop varieties, promoting underutilized and nutrient-dense crops adapted to harsh local conditions, and other interventions. This should be done by promoting awareness to smallholder farmers regarding these interventions and new technologies that have the potential to improve rural livelihoods and enhance resilience and adaptation.
Highlights
In most developing countries, underprivileged people depend directly or indirectly on smallholder crop production to sustain their livelihoods [1]
Based on the study’s evidence, few smallholder farmers (SHF) adopted Climate Smart Irrigation Technologies (CSIT), and males and females played an equal role in the adoption process, removing gender inequality issues
The study would make the following contributions to the theoretical and empirical literature and understand the adoption of CSIT by SHF. This particular study focuses only on the Limpopo Province in South Africa, and it contains valuable information that SHF can use in other Provinces to adopt CSIT
Summary
In most developing countries, underprivileged people depend directly or indirectly on smallholder crop production to sustain their livelihoods [1] These resource-poor people are often referred to as smallholder farmers (SHF). Smallholder farmers have been at the forefront of stimulating rural economies in sub-Saharan Africa [3] They support their households and local markets through products produced in less than three hectares of land [4,5,6]. Despite their contribution to rural economic development, most SHF, in Africa, have been experiencing poor yields, food insecurity and rural poverty due to extreme climatic events, climate variability and change [6,7]. According to Maponya and Mpandeli [13], most SHF have a low adaptive capacity and low resilience to deal with the impacts of extreme climatic events, high climate variability, and change
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