The knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and adaptation strategies to climate change of smallholder livestock farmers in Otjombinde and Epukiro constituencies in the Omaheke Region, Namibia

Abstract

The challenges of climate change are continuously increasing, constituting a major threat to livestock production, which is more than a socio-economic cornerstone in Namibian rural communal farmers, contributing approximately two-thirds of the country’s agricultural GDP. Climate variability, which may be in the form of drought, very high temperatures, floods and frosts has been reported to have detrimental effects on feed and water availability, leading to reduced livestock weight, growth, production and reproductive performance, and ultimately high mortality. Understanding smallholder farmers’ socio-psychological antecedents such as knowledge, attitudes and perceptions and the way they influence their level of adaptation to CC mitigation strategies needs to be assessed, as it guides CC policy formulation and intervention programmes. The study investigated CC perception and adaptation strategies for livestock farmers in Omaheke Region. Data were gathered from (n = 80) purposively sampled farmers in Epukiro and Otjombinde constituencies based on livestock ownership. The study revealed that 93.8% of the respondents were aware that the climate is changing, with attributes such as very high and very low temperatures, high and low rainfall, and drought having been noticed. Climate change has been attributed to both human and natural activity. The study observed that the implementation of CC adaptation strategies in livestock agriculture is low, thus recommends that the improvement of adaptation techniques involving employing extension services, promotion of farmer-to-farmer extension, and utilization of various information sources of climate knowledge, such as farmers' associations and social organizations, should be the future policy priority.