- Title
- A framework for communicating climate information to rural small-scale farmers in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa using systems thinking approach
- Creator
- Pindura, Tineyi Herbert https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7233-6222
- Subject
- Farms, Small
- Subject
- Agriculture -- Environmental aspects
- Subject
- Climatic changes
- Date
- 2022-02
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22809
- Identifier
- vital:52784
- Description
- In the Eastern Cape of South Africa, rural small-scale farmers live in uncertain times characterized by climate change and variability, which intensify social, political and financial inequalities. Therefore, there is a need to increase the understanding and interpretation of climate information to minimize crop production risk, reduce rural small-scale farmers’ vulnerability to climate, and maximize opportunities. Increasing the resilience among rural small-scale farmers requires appropriate and viable practical approaches. By using systems thinking approach (and the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality in the Eastern Cape as a study area), this research disseminates the complex nature of current climate information frameworks. Through inputs from farmers (through a Farmers Research Group methodology) and climate data, this thesis developed a new framework for communicating climate information (herein referred as the climate information communication systems framework) to rural small-scale farmers. The proposed climate information communication systems framework successfully integrates scientific and traditional knowledge. The framework constitutes certain stages, where the farming system and crop identification is the first stage. The second stage is the requirements stage, which has two relationships: scientist to crop requirements and farmers to crop requirements. At the scientist to crop requirements level, users will examine crop requirements by combining climatic data and crop simulations, while at the farmers to crop requirement, rural small-scale farmers use the scientific information to plan for the farming season. The farmer then decides the planting and growing period as well as the harvest timing. The study suggests that building links between rural small-scale farmers, extension officers, and scientists makes sharing information easier. The proposed climate information framework design illustrates that stakeholders now have a personal relationship with climate information transmission and can influence the different actions to reduce the effect of climate change unpredictability. The study established that climate change and variability influence recent agricultural output trends. Recent temperature and rainfall trends could have resulted in low crop productivity in the study area. The study also reflected that women are a critical resource in agriculture and rural economy and that middle-aged men and youth are less interested in farming. The findings also showed that women are more receptive to climate information; hence, to promote access and use of climate information remains vital to consider gender-specific aspects for appropriate decision-making in the agriculture sector. The study also recommends enhancing the Farmers Research Group technique. In the past, the scope of this methodology has been narrowly focused, and it must be explored to incorporate additional types of climate information and more debate about how climate is related to the decisions farmers for implementation or consideration.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2022
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (188 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Geography & Environmental Science
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Tineyi Pindura Final Thesis PhD Geography.pdf | 8 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |