Determinants of climate variability adaptation and mitigation strategies harnessed by smallholder maize farmers in Sebayeng village, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Climate variability is an issue of serious concern especially in a water-scarce country like South Africa. This is because a sizeable number of households in the country reside in the rural area where rain-fed agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the people. This study, therefore, examined factors influencing the choice of climate variability adaptation and mitigation strategies employed among smallholder maize farmers in Sebayeng village, Limpopo province, South Africa. Primary data were collected from a random sample of 160 smallholder maize farmers through the administration of a structured questionnaire. While descriptive statistics were used to describe and analyse respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics; multinomial-logistic regression model was employed to analyse factors influencing farmers’ choice of climate variability adaptation and mitigation strategies. Analysis of the data collected showed that the majority of farmers (72.5%) do not adapt and/or mitigate climate variability. Nonetheless, of those mitigating or adapting to climate variability, 11.9% of the farmers used shifting planting dates (early planting which runs from October to mid-December) as their strategy because it comes at no cost. Also, about 11.9% harnessed irrigation facilities, 4.3% used conservation agriculture and 3.8% used drought-tolerant varieties. The result of the logistic model revealed that awareness of climate variability, membership of association, occupation and marital status of respondents were found to have a significant influence on the type of adaptation and mitigation strategies chosen by the farmers. The study, therefore, recommends that the government should provide more training for farmers through workshops and seminars to boost their awareness level about climate variability, its adaptation and mitigation. Farmers should also form cooperatives; in that way, they will gain more access to agricultural incentives and they should be encouraged to engage in other economic activities such as processing and marketing of agricultural products to enhance their income.