Agroecology and Climate Change Adaptation: Farmers’ Experiences in the South African Lowveld

AbstractMotivated by interest to increase the resilience of smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change through uptake of agroecology, two community development organizations commissioned a project evaluation upon which this book chapter is written. The chapter discusses how smallholder farmers were experiencing implementing agroecology, trying to understand the reasons for adopting such an approach to farming. The chapter also explores and problematizes the relationship between trends in adoption of agroecology and the smallholder farmers’ awareness of climate change and adaptation. The chapter confirms that agronomic and income generation are the key reasons for adoption of agroecology. Most of the farmers reminisced about how their crop yields had declined and soils no longer producing enough to feed the family. Other motivating factors for uptake of agroecology included lack of employment, limited income sources, access to health organic foods, and medicinal value of herbs grown. The chapter further concluded that the correlation between adoption of agroecology and farmers’ awareness of it as a climate change adaptation measure is generally weak. Smallholder farmers adopted agroecology more for responding to issues of food security, than any conscious desire to adapt to climate change. Implications of this observation is that practitioners working with smallholder farmers need to rethink their approaches and design of interventions to integrate climate change education and learning, so that strong connections between the agroecological practices promoted and adaptation to climate change are made. Such an approach has potential to improve the sustainability and value of the agroecological practices adopted.