Impact of Agricultural Drought Resilience on the Welfare of Smallholder Livestock Farming Households in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa

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.

Determinants of Smallholder Livestock Farmers’ Household Resilience to Food Insecurity in South Africa

“…This implied that the more assets a farming household owned, the higher the resilience to agricultural drought. These findings are consistent with literature stating that having more assets may increase a household's resilience to food insecurity [11,[13][14][15][16]48]. Further, the literature also indicates that resilience is the key to enhancing adaptive capacity [49].…”

“…Their output does not generate enough income nor do they engage in off-farm or non-farm income-generating activities, even in export. The insufficient production is further undermined by factors such as a lack of assets (resources), a lack of adaptive capacity, climate change (agricultural drought), a lack of social safety nets, increasing farm input prices, a lack of information, and inadequate institutional infrastructure [12,13].…”

Research Progress and Conceptual Insights on Drought Impacts and Responses among Smallholder Farmers in South Africa: A Review

“…Declines in livestock and crop productivity result in income losses to famers; however, in this review, only two reviewed papers acknowledged the loss of income as an economic impact of drought [35,53]. Besides the loss of income from livestock deaths, it was also acknowledged that the selling of animals and farm assets at low prices, increased fodder prices during drought years, and the buying of animal vaccines and disease treatment chemicals resulted in further income losses for farmers [35,54]. The economic impacts of drought associated with decreases in livestock prices and land prices were identified by Lottering et al [35] and Ngaka [53], respectively.…”

Agricultural Drought and Its Potential Impacts: Enabling Decision-Support for Food Security in Vulnerable Regions

“…According to a study, drought reduced agricultural productivity in South Africa by 8.4% in 2015. The livestock industry, for example, had a 15% drop in national herd stock as a result of the drought (Matlou et al, 2021). The result further reveals that years 2017 was severely affected by drought where some areas are more impacted than others.…”

“…This variability may be due to several factors, such as topography, rainfall amount, human and natural activities (Ayanlade et al, 2018). Drought periods affect the agricultural sector the most compared to other sectors (mining, manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, finance, and community service; Matlou et al, 2021).…”