Student Number : 0414810F -
MA research report -
School of Social Sciences -
Faculty of Humanities / The goal of this research report was to profile the coping strategies of households in
Thorndale to the effects and impacts of the 2002/2003 drought. Thorndale, the study site is
prone to drought and thus experiences severe drought almost every year. The rationale behind
the selection of Thorndale for the study was based on this fact, in addition to the fact that the
study area is relatively unstudied. The study’s major findings included inadequate agricultural
extension service delivery in the community, while the drought’s impacts were economic,
social, nutritional and health, food shortage, environmental and wildlife. The most significant
and largest impact was water shortage. These impacts led to increased household dependency
on the natural capital component of livelihoods in addition to prostitution and the
community’s institutional arrangements. The main constraints households encountered in
response to the drought’s impacts included the lack of employment opportunities, financial
and infrastructural problems among others. It is recommended that with respect to food
security, efforts should be made to ensure the trickle down effect of national level assessment
of vulnerability on annual basis to rural households in South Africa’s drought-prone areas
including Thorndale, in order to improve timely and practical solutions to issues of food
insecurity. Furthermore, it should be ensured that the national level benefits of early warning
systems trickle down to the local and community levels including Thorndale. Additionally,
agricultural extension service delivery in the community needs to be improved.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/2114 |
| Date | 26 February 2007 |
| Creators | Akpalu, Delali Adjoa |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 939211 bytes, 11998 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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