Factors influencing farmers’ awareness and choice of adaptation strategies to climate change by smallholder crop farmers

Climate change is a global phenomenon and it affects agricultural productivity worldwide – in developed and developing countries alike. Climate change events such as high temperatures, recurrent droughts and erratic rainfall patterns have led to a significant loss in food production, which manifests itself through crop failure, water stress and human disease outbreaks. Hence, this paper investigates the factors that influence the awareness of climate change and the choice of climate change adaptation strategies among emerging farmers and households in Libode, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Farming is the main activity practised in Libode. Primary data on several demographic, socioeconomic and biophysical variables were collected from 120 smallholder crop farmers. Binary logistic regression was used to estimate the factors influencing the farmers’ awareness and a multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the choice of adaptation strategies employed by crop farmers. The results showed that farmers were aware of climate change and adapted to changing climatic conditions. They also showed that such socioeconomic factors as the number of years of schooling, average land size, household head’s farming experience and access to agricultural extension services affect the farmers’ awareness positively, whereas age affects it negatively. The majority of farmers have adjusted both their crop and livestock practices to account for the effects of climate change. Thus, the study identified crop diversification and agroforestry as the most promising strategies for enhancing agricultural productivity for crop farmers, the environment and future generations. The government should develop policies aimed at spreading and improving awareness of climate change among farmers through educational workshops and training sessions throughout the country. Farmers are encouraged to form such groups as co-operatives and farm organisations to serve as platforms for sharing knowledge on indigenous farming practices (like mixed cropping, changing planting dates) to ensure effective climate change adaptation.