Determinants of Rural Farmers’ Adoption of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies: Evidence from the Amathole District Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

There is consensus that rural farmers' livelihoods are vulnerable to climate change. Also, literature suggests that locally driven adaptations are critical complementary strategies that can be targeted to reduce the negative effects of climate change in the short-run. Thus far, through using a cross sectional survey sample of 200 rural farmers from the Amathole district municipality of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, the paper estimated farmers' climate change adaptation strategies, adaptation portfolio diversity and factors that condition farmers' adoption behavior. The results reveal several crop, livestock and non-farm based adaptation strategies skewed in favour of crop and non-farm floral based techniques. The results further indicate that rural farmers in general are low adopters of climate change adaptation strategies with poor adaptation portfolio diversity. Regression estimates reveal several socioeconomic and institutional factors as drivers of adoption and adaptation portfolio diversity worth targeting to promote the ability of rural farmers to cope with climate change.