Land reform and climate change in South Africa: adaptation and mitigation through indigenous knowledge systems.

Abstract

Land reform programmes could be afected by changing climatic conditions, which could afect smallholder farmers and rain-fed agricultural production. Benecfiiaries of the land reform programme could be frustrated by erratic rains and unpredictable weather conditions. Predictions show that climate change will decrease agricultural production substantially in Africa and this could mostly afect small-scale farmers and new farmers with limited farming capital. This theoretical paper focuses on indigenous knowledge systems that could be utilised by new farmers to mitigate the efects of climate change in South Africa. Indigenous knowledge systems are posited as being capable of reducing the efects of climate change in situations such as severe storms, flooding and droughts. The new farmers could embrace indigenous knowledge systems in crop planting, crop cultivation, harvesting, food processing, crop storage, and weather prediction strategies. Benecfiiaries of the land reform programme could use natural fertilisers and traditional methods of moisture retention to complement modern methods of farming. The new farmers in South Africa are expected to actively engage in activities that seek solutions to mitigate and adapt to unpredictable weather and disastrous climatic conditions. Policies and programmes that incorporate new farming ideas in South Africa such as the Global Change Grand Challenge would be utilised to help beneficiaries of the land reform programme to understand the causes and eefcts of climate change and how indig enous knowledge could be employed to supplement modern methods of farming during times of scarcity. The study stimulates future studies to research the eefcts of climate change on land reform programmes in South Africa and Africa at large.