Data on climate change effect and use of adaptation strategies among smallholder maize farmers: evidence from a microlevel survey in Ehlanzeni District, South Africa.

Abstract

Climate Change and its effects on agriculture and human sur- vival remain a global concern requiring continual research and the use of coping strategies. This paper focus on pre- senting a data article on climate change effect and use of adaptation strategies by exploiting the insight from a mi- crolevel survey carried out among smallholder maize farm- ers in South Africa. The data present the change in maize output and income farmers have experienced in the last two growing seasons attributed to the effect of climate change, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies currently utilized, and constraints faced by the maize farmers. The col- lected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t- Test analysis. The findings revealed that climate change ef- fect is very evident in the area by the significant reduction in output and income observed among the maize farmers, and thus, it is still pertinent for farmers to scale-up their use of adaptation and mitigation strategies in the area. How- ever, the farmers can only effectively and sustainably achieve this if extension agencies provide continuous climate change- related training for maize farmers and government harmo- niously work with improved seed production agencies to en- sure smallholder maize farmers can adequately access seeds when needed and at subsidized rates.