Unpacking the nexus between Livestock Farming, Food Security and Climate Change in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province

Abstract

This study assessed how livestock farmers can ensure their food security under climate variations in the case of the Vhembe District in Limpopo. This study’s central argument is that by unpacking the nexus between livestock farming, food security and climate change, it is possible to disentangle this relationship and posit new relationships, processes and systems in a framework that enhances livestock farming to ensure food security while addressing climate change. To achieve that end, qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted. Data collection involved the administration of a questionnaire to livestock farmers in Mtititi and Shikundu villages and conducting semi-structured interviews with Key Informants drawn from various government and municipal departments, community leaders and officials from farmers’ associations. The study found out that a few farmers were not familiar with climate change, as many participants identified unprecedented and prolonged droughts as a consequence of climate change. Many of the livestock farmers attested to a perceived increase in temperature. The farmers attested to facing rising temperatures with drier days and less rainfall, and that the persistence of drought is affecting the livestock sector negatively. The study also found that formal extension support services can contribute significantly to clearing perceptions and heightening awareness of livestock regarding climate change. It also found that extension support can also improve production and knowledge through skills transfer. Of equal importance is the result that indicates that age, gender, education, marital status, literacy, markets, media, atmospheric conditions and farm land acquisition have an impact on perceptions, climate change awareness and the production outputs. While a majority of the farmers were of the view that the objective of preserving livestock is for revenue and sustenance security, only a few believed that it is for family consumption. Males predominate in the livestock sector; close to half of the livestock farmers were aged 55 years and above with a negligible representation of those in the age range of 25 to 35 years invoking the need to attract younger people into the sector. Overall, it can be concluded that farmers in the Vhembe District were already familiar with the phenomenon of climate change. However, they seemed less able to handle the challenges of climate change without support from government in the form of funding and extension support services. As such, this study recommends that the state and relevant partners should embark on climate change awareness campaigns, workshops and farmers’ days at scale to iv mitigate this problem in the interests of climate compliance and food security. It further recommends that government programmes should foreground and accommodate farmers’ perceptions of climate change, food security, livestock farming and indigenous knowledges for effective outcomes and mutual benefits because these perceptions matter. It also found out that, undergirded by a participatory approach, stakeholder collaborations assist in creating mutually beneficial partnerships between government, farmers and other relevant stakeholders in the realisation of emancipatory, climate change mitigation subventions at the policy and practice levels. This study posited an eight step Food Security Framework that includes a stakeholder and resource analysis; a vulnerability context and risk analysis; formulation of mitigation measures; streamlining the measures by stakeholder; formulation of appropriate strategies; participatory verification of processes; and assessment of outcomes. This is its major contribution to knowledge with a bearing on both policy and practice. The strength of this framework is that it embraces and valorises participatory platforms, it is stakeholder sensitive, acknowledges the key role of government and empowers livestock farmers. One of the weaknesses is that it may bring its own new bureaucracy.