South Africa: Adapting to Change - How Local Farmers Use Tradition to Combat Climate Impacts Sustainably

While climate adaptation strategies and sustainable farming practices thrive in small to medium farms, commercial farmers are still behind on the journey because of the costs of chemical-free or minimal-chemical farming practices.

Listen to this article 8 min Listen to this article 8 min Whether dealing with blind moles, weeds, changes in weather patterns or harsh weather conditions, subsistence and small to medium-scale farmers are showing resilience and using intuition and indigenous knowledge to farm and secure food access sustainably.

Experts shared these survival tactics at a virtual seminar titled Indigenous Approaches to Adaptation, hosted by the Rural Change for Climate Adaptation Organisation, Social Change Assistance Trust, the Heinrich Boll Stiftung and other partners.

Director of Sustaining the Wild Coast and winner of the 2024 Goldman Prize for the environment, Sinegugu Zukulu, was one of three speakers. He said that in some rural areas, people notice changes in the climate, but do not necessarily call it "climate change" or are even aware of the term, especially in the more far-flung and isolated areas. Zukulu said that farmers had created climate adaptation strategies born out of necessity.

Over the years farmers have used adaptive strategies like planting certain crops at the edge of their fields.

"The floods which killed almost 500 people in Durban, their impact was not confined to KZN but reached the northern parts of Eastern Cape. The fields where...

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