Examining the role of institutional support in enhancing smallholder oilseed producers’ adaptability to climate change in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Smallholder oilseed production constitutes a crucial component of rural economies and continues to face the consequences of a changing climate despite the increased levels of vulnerability. This paper assesses how smallholder oilseed farmers’ adaptive capacity in Limpopo is enhanced through various institutional support schemes within the context of increased climate extremes and their need to sustain production. Six hundred farmers were interviewed across three agro-ecological zones of Limpopo Province. Results show that some of the institutions’ current operations aimed at providing support to farmers do not adequately satisfy the farmers’ needs. A strong linear relationship was observed between the number of support types received by farmers and grain yield, suggesting that farmers who received more support types were relatively less vulnerable. Educational support is ranked as the most significant contributor to enhancing farmers’ adaptive capacity. This emphasizes the need for proper linkages between farmers’ choices of adaptive methods and the types of support needed. Therefore, this study provided a diagnosis of the gaps in essential types of institutional support needed to increase farmers’ resilience, which can be used as an input to beef up the policy and positioning to improve the adaptive capacity.