Agricultural policy in South Africa should support a mix of crop and livestock farming amongst subsistence farmers in order to make them more resilient to the impact of climate change. This is in contrast with government’s existing approach, which currently tries to urge small farmers to diversify their crops in order to adapt to changes in climate.
This is one of the findings of a study by the Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU) at the University of Cape Town, following a country-wide survey of smallholder farmers who supplement their household income through selling their agricultural produce, and also use it to boost their food supply at home.
‘The study reflects the experience of 1121 subsistence farmers in all nine provinces across South Africa,’ explains the EPRU’s Dr Byela Tibesigwa. ‘These are farmers whose main output is used directly in the home, and where they have few, if any, inputs which they buy. Only a minor proportion of the farms’ produce is sold.’
This kind of farmer is particularly vulnerable to climate change because they mostly depend on rain-fed agriculture and have limited ways to adapt to changing farming conditions.
‘We looked at how the crop-only, livestock-only, or a mix of crop and livestock farming will be impacted by rising temperatures and changes in rainfall between now and 2080,’ says Tibesigwa, the lead researcher on the study. ‘We were particularly concerned with how this will impact on household income, as well as diet.’
Farmers keep over half of their crop production for home consumption (some 58%), and they use just over a quarter of the livestock products at home (26.7%). There is also a link between the money that farmers earn from selling their produce, and whether or not there is enough food in the home. The more income they earn from selling their produce, the more food they have in the home.
‘In a scenario where rainfall decreases and temperature rises, there is an overall negative effect on subsistence farming, hitting specialised crop farmers most severely,’ Tibesigwa explains.
The impacts become worse over time, leading to an increasing loss of income by 2080.
The take-home message for policy makers is that they should try to encourage a greater mix of crop and livestock farming for these small scale operators, rather than focusing on greater diversity in crops only.
These findings were presented at the Africa Climate Conference: Advancing African Climate Science in Arusha, Tanzania. Tibesigwa conducted the research along with the EPRU’s A/Prof Martine Visser and Dr Jane Turpie.
by Leonie Joubert