Socio-demographic Context of Resilience for Adaptation to Climate Change and Implication for Agricultural Extension in Buffelspruit, South Africa

Abstract

The study examined the socio-demographic characteristics of smallholder farmers’ and resilience strategies for adaptation to climate change in Buffelspruit, South Africa. The objectives of the study were to determine local resilience strategies used by farmers and examine adoption behaviour in the use of local resilience strategies for mitigating climate change. The study was conducted in Buffelspruit community. A total number of 306 participants were selected randomly for this study. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were used for data collection. The adoption behaviour of the farmers in the use of local resilience strategies was analysed using the logit model. Crop rotation, crop diversification and the adjustment of planting dates were the resilience strategies used by farmers. The result from the logit analysis reveals that gender (p = 0.047), level of education (p = 0.16), employment (p = 0.043), farm skills (p = 0.058), extension services (p = 0.011) and farm size (p = 0.022) influenced the adoption of climate resilient strategies in the study area. Extension education must move beyond technical training to enhance farmers’ abilities for planning, problem solving, critical thinking and leadership skills to work with multiple stakeholders. Extension must be proactive with capacity development in climate change education.

Evaluating Inspiring Factors and Obstacles in the Start-Up of Owned Agri-Preneurial Businesses: Underlying Evidence from South Africa

“…This result implies that, for any additional training received, there is a corresponding increase in the inspiration and yearnings of an agri-preneurship investment decision, provided all variables in the study remain constant. This result agrees with the study by (Agholor et al 2023;Oduro-Ofori et al 2015), which found that an increase in farmers' level of education enhanced the acceptance of a climate resilience approach aimed at increasing production. Furthermore, the data indicate that the pride of ownership variant (level of education with p < 0.024) is correlated and significantly influences motivation to start-up an agripreneurial business (Table 10).…”

Agro-Investments among Small Farm Business Entrepreneurs in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Case in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

“…These results contradict the findings by Nkosi (2022) in the study conducted on the fourth industrial revolution's opportunities and constraints, which found that gender was not significant in relation to innovation and technology. However, the findings of this study are congruous with the findings from a study conducted by Agholor et al (2023) on the socio-demographic context of resilience for adaptation to climate change and implication for agricultural extension in Buffelspruit, South Africa, which discovered that women in farming perceive innovation and advanced agricultural developments as important than men. Consequently, a study by Li et al (2008) found that gender is significant in relation to the perception of factors such as affordability, ease of use, and usefulness.…”