ASSESSING THE ADOPTION OF CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE TOWARDS CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: A CASE OF NKOMAZI, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17501/26827018.2021.6105Keywords:
Adaptation, Climate, Agriculture, Conservation, Adoption, DecisionAbstract
Climate change is a threat to agricultural productivity and the overwhelming effects of climate change hinders the quest for sustainable agriculture, with the aim of satisfying the increasing demands for food and fiber. Adaptation to the ever-changing climate is a necessity for the agricultural sector. The study was conducted in Nkomazi Local Municipality. The study assessed the adoption of conservation agriculture in relation to climate change by smallholder farmers. Focus group discussion, structured and semi-structured questionnaires were used to randomly collect data from selected smallholder farmers. The data was analyzed using the binary logistics regression model to determine adoption behavior of farmers in the use of conservation agriculture. Logistic regression result show that several predictor variables were found to significantly influence the adoption behavior of smallholder farmers in the area. The study noted the existence of significant variables to include age, education, household size, income, number of children, and adoption of conservation agricultural practice. Marital status of the farmers was found not to be significant and never to influence the adoption behavior of farmers with a p-value of (0.911) and co-efficient of (0.102). Furthermore, thoughtful decision process and smallholder farmers’ capacity development and training on conservation techniques must be accentuated. It is therefore, recommended that future research be undertaken on the extent to which the effects of climate change affect farmer’s productivity as well as the lack of youth involvement in agricultural production in the study area.
Downloads
References
Agholor, A., & Nkosi, M. (2020). ‘Sustainable Water Conservation Practices and Challenges amongst Smallholder Farmers in Enyibe Ermelo Mpumalanga Province, South Africa’. Journal of Agricultural Extension, Vol. 24 (2), 112 – 123.
Agholor, A., & Obi, A. (2013). The storm of poverty reduction strategy in Africa: Chronology of experiences from South Afroca. Journal of Agricultural Science, 5(2). 85-94.
Agholor, A., & Sithole, M. (2020). “Tillage Management as a Method of Weed Control in Mangweni, Nkomazi Local Municipality, South Africa”. International Journal of Sciences and Research, Vol. 76 (7), 209 – 221 .
Azam, M. (2015). “The Influence of Socio-Demographic Factors in Adoption of Organic Farming Practices”. International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies, Vol. 2 (5), 8 – 17.
Bindoff, N., Stott, P., AchutaRao, K., Allen, M., Gillett, N., & Gutzler, D. (2013). ‘Detection and Attribution of Climate Change: From Global to Regional’. In: Stocker TF et al. (eds.) Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis’, Contribution of Working Group I to the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate change. United Kingdom and New York. NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
Conradie, B., Piesse, J., Thirtle, C., Vink, N., & Winter, K. (2013). Explaining declining agricultural total factor productivity in the Karoo districts of Western Cape, 1952 to 2002. Agrekon, 52( sup1). 1-23.
Department of Agriculture, L. R. (2020). DARDLEA registered smallholder farmers in Nkomazi Local Municipality. Mbombela: Unpublised raw data.
FAO. (2015). ‘Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Conservation agriculture’. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/6c.html. Accessed on the 26th April 2020
FAO. (2018). ‘Climate Smart Agriculture: Building Resilience to Climate Change’. USA: Berkeley.
Gailhard, I., Bovorova, M., & Pirscher, F. (2015). “Adoption of Agri-Environmental Measures by Organic Farmers: The Role of Interpersonal Communication”. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, Vol. 21 (2), 127 – 148.
Henry, B., Charmley, E., Eckard, R., Gaughan, J., & Hegarty, R. (2012). ‘Livestock Production in a Changing Climate: Adaptation and Mitigation in Australia’. Crop and Pasture Science, 6 (3), 191 – 202.
Jona, C. (2016). “Developing a Framework for Improving Coordination in the Provision of Agricultural Support Services to Farmers in the Oshikoto Region, Namibia”. University of Pretoria, South Africa: PhD thesis, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
Kalungu, J., Leal, W., & Mwangi, M. (2013). Responding to food production challenges in the face of global warming at community level in Kenya: the role of local University . Springer, Dordrecht, 231-241.
Krishnapuram, B., Carin, L., Figueiredo, M., & Hartemink, A. (2005). Sparse multinomial logistic regression: Fast algorithms and generalization bound . IEEE transaction on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, 27(6), 957-968.
Kumar, S., Choudhary, M., Ghasal, P., Yadav, R., Singh, S., Meena, S., & Bisht, J. (2016). Conservation Agriculture and Climate Change: An Overview’. ResearchGate, Publication: 311418457.
Mar, S., Nomura, H., Takahashi, Y., Ogata, K., & Yabe, M. (2018). ‘Impact of Erratic Rainfall from Climate Change on Pulse Production Efficiency in Lower Myanmar’. JEB, Vol. 71 (1), 443 – 450.
Muzangwa, L., Mnkeni, P., & Chiduza, C. (2017). ‘Assessment of Conservation Agriculture Practices by Smallholder Farmers in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa’ . MDPI, 7 (46), doi.103390.
Nagelkerke, N. (1991). A note on a general defination of the coefficient of determination . Biometrika, 78(3), 691-692.
Nyamangara, J., Chkowo, R., Rusinamhodzi, L., & Mazvimavi, K. (2013). ‘Conservation Agriculture in Southern Africa’. ResearchGate, Accessed from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/272351008. Accessed on the 2nd May 2020.
Pareek, A., Dhankher, O., & Foyer, C. (2020). ‘Mitigating the Impact of Climate Change on Plant Production and Ecosystem Sustainability’. JEB, Vol. 71 (2), 451 – 456.
Report, N. L. (2017). ‘Draft Annual Report 2016/2017’. South Africa: Nkomazi.
Rho, H., Dotty, S., & Kim, S. (2020). ‘Endophytes Alleviate the Elevated CO2 Dependent Decrease in Photosynthesis in Rice, Particularly Under Nitrogen Limitation’. JEB, , 71, 707 – 718.
Robinson, S. (2018). ‘Adapting to Climate Change at the National Level in Caribbean Small Island Developing States’. Island Studies Journal , 13 (1), 79 – 100.
Sebeho, M. (2016). “Perception and Attitude of Farmers and Extensionists towards Extension Service Delivery in the Free State Province, South Africa”, . University of Pretoria, South Africa: Master Thesis, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
Shah, K., Dulal, H., & Awatobi, M. (2020). ‘Food Security and Livelihood Vulnerability to Climate Change in Trinidad and Tobago’ . USA: Springer Nature Singapore Publishers.
Statistics, S. A. (2011). Mid- year population exstimates for South Africa. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.
Zwane, T. (2018). Assessing the determinants and effects of non-monetary household asset poverty in South Africa. Johannesburg: University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Proceedings of the International Conference on Agriculture
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
