Friday, 30 June 2023
By: Peter Mashala
Smallholder farmers’ welfare was improved by a drought relief program launched by local municipalities in the Francis Bard District Municipality (FBDM). This is confirmed by a study conducted by Professor Yonas T Bahta, Associate Professor, and researcher at the University of Free State’s (UFS) Department of Agricultural Economics, titled “Resilience of households to agricultural drought in the Northern Cape province of South Africa”.
Prof Bahta explained that the study’s primary objectives were to assess smallholder livestock farmers’ resilience to drought, evaluate their welfare, and identify what factors affect their resilience.
Bahta, however, said that although farmers’ welfare improved, they were not able to return to their previous levels of welfare after drought relief. It was found that relief/assistance is often delayed and people must wait until their farms or provinces are declared disaster areas before receiving assistance.
In other words, relying solely on drought relief support is not enough to help smallholder farmers bounce back from drought shock.
Bahta’s study focused solely on the Francis Bard District Municipality (FBDM), where 868 smallholder livestock farming units were assisted. The 868 smallholder livestock farming units were spread across four local municipalities: Dikgatlong, Magareng, Sol Plaatje, and Phokwane.
According to him, the government provided feed and medication for livestock, strengthened access to agricultural credit and inputs, and trained and disseminated drought resilience information to smallholder farmers.
According to him, 56% of smallholder farmers’ welfare changed due to drought, warranting government assistance. Despite drought relief provided to farmers, the study found they were unable to restore their welfare state prior to the climatic shock.
Only 9% of smallholder livestock farmers showed resilience, according to the study. Farmers with access to credit, as well as those who receive government assistance (like training and feed) during droughts, as well as those belonging to cooperatives, fared better.
“To enhance smallholder farmers’ resilience, the government along with other stakeholders, including policymakers, must build economic, social, and human capital resources,” said Bahta.
His view is that agricultural policies should be aimed at assisting and encouraging smallholder livestock farmers to develop social networks and strengthen existing ones.
“The goal of specific farm management policies should be to provide training and education in economic and financial management to smallholder livestock producers. A way to accomplish this is by equipping extension agents with economic and financial knowledge, which can then be passed on to smallholder farmers,” explained Bahta.
“Furthermore, workshops or seminars that provide training on economic and financial management to smallholder farmers can contribute to this goal. In this way, smallholder farmers can improve their farm economic performance, which will result in higher financial capital.” According to him, these policies can help smallholder farmers be more resilient and improve their standard of living.
