Adapting to Climate Change in Semi-Arid Rural Areas: A Case of the Limpopo Basin Part of Botswana

Abstract

Climate change and anthropogenic pressure are increasingly modifying and interfering with ecosystem functions and limiting the delivery of ecosystem products, livelihoods, and adaptive response capacity in many developing countries. We identify measures by which local people in the semi-arid Limpopo Basin part of Botswana are responding to climate change and fluctuations in ecosystem products and examine socio-economic attributes of households influencing their adoption and discuss their adequacy. Our study used a case study of Bobirwa sub-district and employed key informant and household interviews to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Thematic analysis was used to analyze textural data from key informant interviews while frequencies, proportions, and Chi-squared tests were used to analyze the adoption of different strategies. A multinomial logit (MNL) regression was used to analyze the influence of several social, demographic, and economic attributes of households on household adaptation choices. We attributed the high adoption of on-farm adaptations to the simultaneous influence of more severe droughts and the free input support through the government’s Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture (ISPAAD). Our findings suggest that current adaptations were inadequate and implementation of the ISPAAD programme required fine-tuning to be more effective. Results of the MNL regression provide critical information on the barriers and enablers of adaptation in the sub-district yet offer important entry points for improving current adaptations. Therefore, the government needs to put measures that encourage investments in the processing of ecosystem products in rural areas to broaden the livelihood base and possibly reduce overdependence on rainfed agriculture. However, the extent to which this can be achieved depends on the level of government commitment to supporting local initiatives to addressing the climate change threat.

The utilization and contribution of timber and non-timber forest products to livelihoods under a changing climate in the Limpopo River Basin

“…A compelling illustration comes from a study by [9], which reported an increasing frequency and intensity of droughts in the Limpopo Basin in recent years, further limiting rainfed crop production. Several other studies have corroborated this trend, indicating a heightened dependence on forest products as a coping mechanism during drought years compared to other years [4,10,11].…”

“…Thus, we conclude that T&NTFPs in this study contributed significant cash income that is critical to financing household climate change adaptation initiatives. This is noteworthy considering the increasing precarity of rain-fed agriculture in semi-arid areas [11] and the limited off-farm livelihood opportunities in many rural areas. We also noted the potential threats to the sustainability of local forest products due to the increasing need for cash income driven by rising demand for forest products such as Mopane caterpillars and firewood and the seamless integration with distant urban markets.…”

“…Smallholder crop production was among the least contributors to household income. This was attributed to the low agricultural productivity [11] and increasing threats of climate change-induced droughts on rainfed agriculture [38]. The low income from smallholder crop production thus highlights the challenges of rainfed agriculture.…”

Climate change adaptation by smallholder farmers in Southern Africa: a bibliometric analysis and systematic review

“…Government assistance (Maltou and Bahta 2019) and women empowerment (Maltitz and Bahta 2021) could help build smallholder livestock farmers' resilience in South Africa and is recommended as a way of improving resilience among female livestock farmers. Mugari et al (2020) reckons that knowledge of the factors which affect decisions concerning adaptation is critical towards developing resilience in semi-arid rural areas of Botswana.…”

Associations between Climate Variability and Livestock Production in Botswana: A Vector Autoregression with Exogenous Variables (VARX) Analysis

“…Despite the importance of livestock in the national economy and the changing climate is a worldwide concern, the literature on climate and agriculture, particularly livestock production in Botswana, is scant. Most studies tend to focus on farmers' perceptions of climate change and mitigation strategies [52][53][54][55][56]. There are a few notable studies that have examined the relationship between climate and livestock production.…”