The Garden Route is situated between a mountain range and the ocean, both within close proximity. These geographic considerations make the farmers in the area vulnerable to extreme weather events, especially droughts and floods, which have been experienced in recent years. Agriculture in the area is predominantly focused on dairy and vegetables, which require intensive irrigation practices. It is this water demand that inspired adaptations to counteract the risks of extreme weather and dwindling water sources. These adaptations and behaviours were investigated to determine the underlying perceptions and influences. The research aimed to understand the way environmental knowledge would disseminate through the use of the Diffusion of Innovation theory, whilst determining the ecological worldviews of the participants through the use of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. Both of these theories proved effective in researching the ecological perceptions of and various influences on the participants, with a few minor drawbacks. The data analysis investigated the research questions with a three-pronged approach. Interpersonal interviews and media content analysis of the local and agricultural media in the area was followed by analysing the two sets of findings, in order to find overlaps and relationships between the factors explored. The interviews were designed as semi-structured to allow for themes to emerge and were conducted mainly within the diary and beef industries, consisting of 24 participants. The media content analysis incorporated a niche agricultural magazine (32 articles) as well as the local newspaper (74 articles). The articles were coded for themes to allow for comparison between the two, and to provide an overall understanding of the media coverage. The use of the interviews and media content analysis concurrently, made it possible to determine the farmers’ perceptions of water conservation and the possible influences on these. By exploring this, the research endeavours to understand the dynamics between the farmers’ use of media and interpersonal networks and their water conservation practices. The farmers’ perceptions appeared to be predominantly shaped by agricultural media and interpersonal communities. The NEP scale responses exposed the clash between economic and environmental considerations. The farmers were acutely aware of their ecological impact and were employing various measures to counteract it. However, these were heavily dependent on their financial situation. This is in contrast to the NEP scale’s measuring of NEP statements contrasted with Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP) statements to determine ecological attitudes. These findings confirm previous research and demonstrate that modern farmers are more likely to adopt conservation practices than their traditional counterparts, if it helps achieve their economic, social and environmental goals. The importance of the historical context of South Africa’s water issues emerged, with the past and future proposed changes to water regulation and legislation affecting farmers’ perceptions. The move from agriculturally privileged water legislation to equitable distribution is affecting the farmers negatively, causing distrust towards the government. The research was successful in achieving an understanding of the effect of the mass media and interpersonal communication influences on the farmers’ perceptions of water conservation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:26465 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Buckle, Dorothea Maria |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | xv, 154 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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