Commercial Farming Adaption to Drought as a Strategy for Stable Local Economic Growth in Ugu District Municipality
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Date
2022
Authors
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Publisher
Univeristy of Zululand
Abstract
Agriculture is regarded as the sector that mostly relies on climate conditions for its productivity, yet in
recent years this sector has been experiencing droughts. The study attempted to explain how
commercial farming adaptation to droughts maybe be used as a strategy for stable Local Economic
Growth (LEG) amongst commercial farms in Ugu District Municipality. This study situates the
commercial farming adaptation to droughts within the theoretical framework of an Action Theory of
Adaptation to climate change. The key finding is that commercial farmers in uGu district Municipality
perceived drought coping strategies a difficult task if not impossible to manage without government’s
intervention. The majority of the participants admitted that drought has defeated their willingness to
farm, and they were subjected to failure. The study recommends that the use of weather forecasting,
vulnerability assessment, crops diversification, sustainable and efficient water management practice,
cultivation of low water consuming crops, and systematic cropping pattern as some of the strategies
which can mitigate the adverse effects of drought among commercial farmers.
Key Words: Climate Change (Drought), Commercial Farming, Economic Growth and Adaptation.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Development Studies in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2022.
Keywords
Commercial Farming, Climate Change (Drought, Economic Growth and Adaptation