The infamous drought of 2015-’16 left a swathe of socio-economic devastation in its immediate and longer-term wakes. This was especially so among South Africa’s communal livestock owners.
By Lloyd Phillips, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Communal livestock owners in often impoverished rural communities depend heavily on their animals for sustenance and income. Yet, they are under immense threat from the increasing frequency and intensity of droughts due to climate change.
This is according to a study* of approximately 3 000 households in rural KwaZulu-Natal’s Msinga district, to assess how the drought of 2015-’16 impacted their livestock, their ownership of livestock and their socio-economic status.
The research found that immediately prior to this drought, 54,8% of Msinga’s households each owned an average 7,5 head of cattle and 80,2% each owned an average 16,5 goats.
Due to starvation and thirst throughout the 2015-’16 drought, 42% of all Msinga’s cattle and 28% of all its goats died. Approximately 9,3% (302) of livestock-owning households there lost all their cattle and approximately 4,5% (109) lost all their goats. Nine years on, some of these households remain without any cattle or goats whatsoever, while others’ herds and flocks are still not at their pre-drought numbers.
Communal Livestock Owners’ Problems
The study found that various factors exacerbated this drought’s impacts in Msinga and, by extension, in other communal livestock areas of South Africa. These included:
- Traditional cultural attachments to, and nutritional and economic dependence on, the animals.
- Stocking densities and competition for grazing in communal areas leave little to no safety margins for lean times.
- Communal livestock owners often cannot afford emergency feed.
- Already degraded grazing before droughts struggles to recover afterwards.
The study’s researchers state: “There is still surprisingly little knowledge about drought impacts in the communal livestock sector. Yet, this is crucial, especially with climate change.
“Support for smaller-scale livestock owners has to focus on risk aversion and to reduce losses of entire herds and flocks that carry severe socio-economic consequences.”
*Study: S Vetter, VL Goodall & R Alcock (2020) Effect of drought on communal livestock farmers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, African Journal of Range & Forage Science, 37:1,93-106. Presented at the Grassland Society of Southern Africa’s 60th annual congress in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal, from 21 to 25 July.
