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The impact of climate change on net revenue and food adequacy of subsistence farming households in South Africa

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  • Tibesigwa, Byela
  • Visser, Martine
  • Turpie, Jane

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of climate change on poor households across South Africa who practise subsistence farming to supplement their household income and dietary requirements. We consider three production systems: specialized crops, livestock and mixed crop-livestock farming. In general, we find specialized crop farmers to be the most vulnerable, while mixed crop-livestock farmers appear to be least vulnerable, suggesting that crop-livestock diversification is a potential coping strategy among poor subsistence farming households. We observe qualitatively similar results when we use self-reported food adequacy as the outcome. Furthermore, predicted impact shows that the climatic changes will be mildly harmful at first but will grow over time and lead to a 151 per cent loss in net revenue by the year 2080. Interestingly, we observe that crop farmers receive higher revenue when land is owned by the household, while on the other hand, livestock farmers earn more revenue when the land is communal.

Suggested Citation

  • Tibesigwa, Byela & Visser, Martine & Turpie, Jane, 2015. "The impact of climate change on net revenue and food adequacy of subsistence farming households in South Africa," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 327-353, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:endeec:v:20:y:2015:i:03:p:327-353_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Byela Tibesigwa, 2018. "Naturally Available Pollinator Decline Will Decrease Household Food and Increase Gender-Gap in Nutrition between Men and Women Who Head Smallholder Farm Households in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 741, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    2. Kathleen Brüssow & Anja Faße & Ulrike Grote, 2017. "Implications of climate-smart strategy adoption by farm households for food security in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(6), pages 1203-1218, December.
    3. Mulwa, Chalmers K. & Visser, Martine, 2020. "Farm diversification as an adaptation strategy to climatic shocks and implications for food security in northern Namibia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    4. Husen Maru & Amare Haileslassie & Tesfaye Zeleke & Befikadu Esayas, 2021. "Analysis of Smallholders’ Livelihood Vulnerability to Drought across Agroecology and Farm Typology in the Upper Awash Sub-Basin, Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-28, August.
    5. Byela Tibesigwa & Martine Visser & Jane Turpie, 2017. "Climate change and South Africa’s commercial farms: an assessment of impacts on specialised horticulture, crop, livestock and mixed farming systems," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 607-636, April.
    6. Helena Ting & Martina Bozzola & Timothy Swanson, 2020. "Evaluating the propensity to save in South Africa using weather-income relationship," CIES Research Paper series 49-2017, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    7. Casmir Ndukaku Anyaegbu & Kingsley Ezechukwu Okpara & Wirach Taweepreda & David Akeju & Kuaanan Techato & Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke & Saran Poshyachinda & Siwatt Pongpiachan, 2022. "Impact of Climate Change on Cassava Yield in Nigeria: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Bound Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Islam, Masanori Matsuura Yir-Huieh Luh Abu Hayat Md. Saiful, 2021. "Climate Variability, Livelihood Diversification, and Household Food Security in Bangladesh," 2021 ASAE 10th International Conference (Virtual), January 11-13, Beijing, China 329402, Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE).
    9. Victor O. Abegunde & Melusi Sibanda & Ajuruchukwu Obi, 2019. "Determinants of the Adoption of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices by Small-Scale Farming Households in King Cetshwayo District Municipality, South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, December.
    10. Emmerling, Johannes & Shayegh, Soheil & Dasgupta, Shouro, 2020. "Inequality and Growth Impacts from Climate Change—Insights from South Africa," RFF Working Paper Series 20-10, Resources for the Future.
    11. Helena Ting & Martina Bozzola & Timothy Swanson, 2017. "Weather and income: effect on household saving and well-being in South Africa," CIES Research Paper series 49-2017, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.

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