ADAPTIVE RESPONSE AND RESILIENCE OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS TO MINIMIZED CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND CHANGE IN LIMPOPO PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Limpopo Province is characterized by high climatic variability and change. Smallholder farmers are mostly hard hit by high climatic variability and change. In order for the smallholder farmers to optimize their agricultural practices they need to use different climate change adaptation strategies such as early maturing crops, drought resistant crop varieties, crop and livestock diversification, culling animals and food storage. The impacts of high climatic variability and change vary from district to district and consequently climate change adaptations are expected to vary widely across Limpopo Province. One of the major constraints to effectively responding to climate extremes is the lack of early warning information systems. Despite the availability of weather information and good meteorological science, poor dissemination of data and early warning information may severely reduce effective responses to climate risk. A long term climatological record is used to characterize the nature climatic risk faced by farmers in the Capricorn district and also an assessment of the associated adaptive capacity within a rural scale. Results show that despite the efforts by farmers to cope and adapt, more efforts can be put in place to increase the resilience. Furthermore, farmers respond differently according to location and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]