Indicators of household-level vunerability to climate change in three topographically diverse rural villages

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dc.contributor.advisorBester, B Pen
dc.contributor.authorSotsha, Kayalethuen
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-28T10:31:03Z
dc.date.available2026-07-28T10:31:03Z
dc.date.issued2013en
dc.description.abstractClimate change has become a major concern globally and it clearly exerts a profound influence on the lives of poor rural populations who depend on agriculture for livelihoods.Generally, agriculture is more at risk from weather, pests and diseases than is industry or trade. Furthermore, many farming units are at low levels of development with little technological input in their production systems. This makes them vulnerable to any exposure to climate and environmental variation, given that there is little capacity for the system to adjust to change. Most at risk are the rural poor with low levels of development and limited ability to adapt to and overcome the effects of climate change. Using data from a sample survey of 120 households this study attempts to assess and compare indicators of vulnerability to climate change. The comparison was made at household level between three typical villages, an inland, a river catchment and a coastal village. This idea of comparison arises from the general understanding that different variables affect different regions differently so that the impact of and vulnerability to climate change differs across regions, areas and populations. The data was obtained using a questionnaire that was administered through face-to-face interviews. Given that sensitivity and adaptive capacity of farming systems to climate change is shaped by both socioeconomic and institutional factors, a multiple regression model was used to test the relationship between indicators of vulnerability and household socioeconomic and institutional characteristics. Indicators were selected based on significant statistical relationships. This means that the statistical procedure for selecting indicators involved relating a large number of variables to vulnerability in order to identify statistically significant factors. The results showed reliability of income and reliability of water resources to be good indicators of vulnerability. Many statistically significant variables as well as respective R2 of 0.988 and 0.825 confirm the foregoing. Another indicator was the Simpson index that measures diversification of agricultural production. The results show that vulnerability to climate change was highest for the households near the river and lowest for the inland village. Moreover, the results confirmed that most blacks that are practicing agriculture receive little if any support largely because available resources are highly skewed towards certain farmers rather than others.en
dc.format143 leavesen
dc.formatpdfen
dc.identifier.citationSotsha, Kayalethu. 2013en
dc.identifier.othervital:11212en
dc.identifier.otherhttp://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1016204en
dc.identifier.otherPoverty -- South Africaen
dc.identifier.otherLand tenure -- South Africaen
dc.identifier.otherClimatic changes -- South Africaen
dc.identifier.otherFarms, Small -- South Africaen
dc.identifier.otherRural poor -- South Africaen
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11837/4219
dc.language.isoEnglishen
dc.publisherUniversity of Fort Hareen
dc.publisherFaculty of Science & Agricultureen
dc.rightsUniversity of Fort Hareen
dc.subjectPoverty -- South Africaen
dc.subjectLand tenure -- South Africaen
dc.subjectClimatic changes -- South Africaen
dc.subjectFarms, Small -- South Africaen
dc.subjectRural poor -- South Africaen
dc.titleIndicators of household-level vunerability to climate change in three topographically diverse rural villagesen
dc.title.alternativeIndicators of household-level vunerability to climate change in three topographically diverse rural villagesen
dc.typeThesisen
dc.typeMastersen
dc.typeMSc Agric (Agricultural Economics)en

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