A case study on drought coping mechanisms was conducted among small-scale farmers in the
Motheo District of the Free State Province in Republic of South Africa, to determine how farmers
cope with drought effects with or without external influence in terms of drought relief packages
from the government and non-governmental organizations. Data was collected by administering a
semi-structured questionnaire to 200 farmers. The data were captured and analysed using SPSS to
obtain frequency, cross-tab, univariate ANOVA as well as logistic regression analysis.
Findings of the study revealed that only 12.5 percent of the respondents were aware of drought,
while a larger percentage of 87.5 of the respondents were not aware of a drought incidence before
its onset, which made them more vulnerable to the drought disaster; 8.5 percent of them protected
water sources for livestock while 91.5 percent of the farmers did not protect water sources for their
livestock because they farm on a communal land; 42.5 percent provided supplementary feeds to
livestock during the drought, but 57.5 percent did not provide supplementary feed for their animals
for lack of funds.
Ninety-nine (99.0) percent of the respondents shared grazing lands while only 1 per cent did not
because most farmers operates on a communal system of farming; 35.5 percent changed cropping
systems; 50.5 percent had alternative water sources for crops which included mini and hand
irrigation systems while 49.5 percent of the respondents depended solely on streams and rivers
available in the villages; 19.3 percent sold or pledged assets in order to be able to cope with
drought effects while most farmers did not pledge or sell assets not because they did not want to,
but because they did not have assets to sell. / Envornmental Science / Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Management))
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/4032 |
| Date | 09 1900 |
| Creators | Olaleye, Olubunmi Leke |
| Contributors | Masafu, M.M. (Dr.), Anim, F.D.K. (Prof.) |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (x, 135 leaves) |
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