Smallholder sheep farmers’ perceived impact of water scarcity in the dry ecozones of South Africa: determinants and response strategies
Date
2021-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
Water scarcity is amongst the major challenges threatening smallholder sheep production in
subsistence-oriented communal farms in dryland areas. Local contextual factors are a prerequisite
for effective policy development and optimisation of water resources management for smallholder
sheep production. Two-hundred and fifty-two structured questionnaires were administered
to investigate the contextual factors that influence smallholder farmers’ perceived impact of
water scarcity on sheep production in the dry ecozones of the Cape provinces in South Africa and
identify their local response strategies. Logit regression findings showed that a unit increase in
private commercially-oriented arid farms, males, education level, flock size, adapted breeds and
income from livestock increased farmers’ probability to perceive impact of water scarcity on
sheep production. Regardless of ecozone and farm types, sheep farmers switched between water
sources, provided supplementary feed and shade, used adapted breeds and alternative markets to
manage the impact of water scarcity. Interventions to build resilience to water scarcity in the
surveyed areas should target sheep farmers with low adaptive capacity, particularly less educated
women relying on livestock income and farming with non-adapted breeds on subsistence-oriented
communal farms in the semiarid ecozone.
Description
CITATION: Halimani, T. et al, 2021. Smallholder sheep farmers’ perceived impact of water scarcity in the dry ecozones of South Africa: Determinants and response strategies. Climate Risk Management 34(2021):9 pages. doi.10.1016/j.crm.2021.100369
The original publication is available at: sciencedirect.com
The original publication is available at: sciencedirect.com
Keywords
Citation
Halimani, T. et al, 2021. Smallholder sheep farmers’ perceived impact of water scarcity in the dry ecozones of South Africa: Determinants and response strategies. Climate Risk Management 34(2021):9 pages. doi.10.1016/j.crm.2021.100369