Abstract
Recurring agricultural droughts are of concern to smallholder livestock farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study determined the impact of agricultural drought resilience on smallholder livestock farming households’ welfare in the Frances Baard District Municipality (FBDM), in Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Interviews, more specifically survey interviews, were conducted with 207 smallholder livestock farmers. We used compensation variation, resilience index and linear regression models to analyse the data. The findings indicate that smallholder farmers who received drought relief support saw an improvement in their welfare. However, the welfare improvements varied across respondents and different gender categories, with males having higher welfare improvements relative to females. The study also found that economic capital, social capital, human capital and natural capital substantially affected the welfare of smallholder farmers. Furthermore, the study revealed that the smallholder farmers had a moderate agricultural drought resilience index, but low natural resilience capital. The study recommends that governments and non-governmental policymakers aiming to improve the welfare of smallholder farmers should focus on building their economic, social, human and capital resource bases. In this way, the smallholder farmers will be resilient in a time of climatic shock.
Highlights
Climate change significantly impacts food production, including livestock production
This study examined the welfare of smallholder livestock farming households and how agricultural drought relief support from government and farmers’ own resource endowment influenced their welfare
Smallholder farmers who received drought relief support saw an improvement in their welfare
Summary
Climate change significantly impacts food production, including livestock production. Production may be affected in several ways, such as increased operational and input costs (e.g., feed, medication and disease), climate change (e.g., agricultural drought and temperature increases), a rise in the price of animal housing (cooling systems) and fodder quality and quantity [1]. As stated by the FAO [2] and Wilhite, Sivakumar and Pulwarty [3], the period, intensity and occurrence of droughts could increase due to climate change. Drought periods affect the agricultural sector the most compared to other sectors (mining, manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, finance and community service) [3]. It can result in poor productivity, decreased fertility, poor animal health and a rise in livestock mortality [4]. The livestock sector employs one billion poor people globally and contributes 17% of kilocalories and 33% of protein consumed [5]
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