Water scarcity, food production and climate change

Case study Suid Bokkeveld

Climate change is one of the most discussed topics on this planet right now, its effects can be seen all around the world in many different ways. After talking about the water crisis that South Africa faced in my last blogpost, I wanted to focus on the effects the climate change has on agriculture and food. The “agriculture in southern Africa is predicted to be severely affected by climate change”, therefore a study analysing the resilience to climate change of small scale tea farmers in the arid Suid Bokkeveld region of South Africa sounded particularly interesting to me.

Suid Bokkeveld Area (Source)

According to the 2007 IPCC report, areas where natural resources are already low will suffer the most from the negative impacts of climate change on crop yields. Since southern Africa is one of those areas, the focus on agriculture and climate change has increased there, but solutions are yet to be found. The study by E.R.M. Archer, N.M. Oettlé, R. Louw and M.A. Tadross (2008) tries to discuss ways in which farmers are adapting to occurring climate variabilities already, instead of focusing on typical top-down development projects. It is more of a participatory research, interested in existing “indigenous” knowledge. Small stock such as sheep and goats and indigenous rooibos tea production provide the main incoming for the farmers in the mentioned area. They already use sustainable harvesting and farming methods that protect biodiversity, soil and water. On example is the use of indigenous plants that work as windbreakers to protect the soil from degradation. The products of this organic rooibos farming are mostly exported to niche fair trade and organic markets in the global north.

2003 was an extremely dry year for this area of South Africa. It had many different impacts on the tea farmers. Lower yields in the tea harvest were one of the direct effects on agriculture, but the increased frequency of potholes made transport complicated and their livestock was infested by ticks. The farmers argued that all of this was caused by the irregular patterns of rainfall that occurred in the previous months. Added to that, the below average winter rainfall later that year made it almost impossible for the farmers to plough their fields or work elsewhere. In summary: water shortages for livestock and crops enhanced critical conditions for both in form of pests, pathogens and delayed agricultural activities.

      The farmers had to use different coping strategies to overcome the problems they were facing. While stock reduction was one of the more drastic measures, they also tried protecting their land from wind erosion. The study asked the farmers to share how they adapt or would like to adapt in the future and these were the most interesting outcomes: 

    1. Preparation of the ground: by an earlier preparation and/or deeper ploughing, as well as ploughing more than once, the ground is more resistant towards climate changes. 

    2. Wind erosion prevention measures: by planting windbreaker plants crops and soil will be protected from erosion. 

Windbreaker plants (Source)

      3. Stock reduction and/or shifting: moving the livestock to areas with a higher carrying capacity (e.g. riverbanks), supplemental feeding and extra water provision is the only way to keep the animals alive.Farmers discussing and sharing their strategies was part of the study progress. Droughts and seasonal variations like these will become more likely due to the global warming, therefor coping strategies will become more and more important. The study concludes: “The projected changes for the climate of the area – showing an increase in frequency and intensity of precisely those climate parameters already shown to have a negative effect on agriculture and livelihoods are a matter of great concern”. So how will these farmers cope with that?

The Suid Bokkeveld study is just one example for the difficulties agriculture will be facing in a warming world. If nothing changes, it will not only be small-scale tea farmers who have to deal with agricultural issues, but also large-scale commercial farms. And only then will we feel the consequences.