Drought coping mechanisms : a case study of small scale farmers in Motheo district of the Free State province

Abstract

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.