Adaptation to climate change by small-scale Rooibos tea farmers in Wupperthal and the Suid Bokkeveld areas of the Western and Northern Cape

The project aims to support small-scale farmers in the project area in their efforts to adapt their farming practices to anticipated climate change and to enhance their incomes.
It also aims to inform policy makers and implementers (at all levels of government), land users, scientists and development facilitators of the causes and impacts of climate change, and of appropriate adaptation measures and to enable government agencies at all levels (local, provincial and national) to effectively support adaptation to climate change and sustainable resource use in the project area and elsewhere.
Since rural women are among the most vulnerable land users we will also create specific programmes for dealing with their needs.
The direct beneficiaries of the project will be the farmers’ households in the 2 communities. By researching (by using scientific studies that will include the participation of the small-scale farmers) the likelihood and/or success of wild rooibos tea propagation (this strain of the rooibos species is more weather-hardy and resistant to adverse climatic conditions) as either a supplement or replacement of the cultivated variety, in the context of changing climatic conditions, the farmers will enhance their adaptive capacity by having insight and informed knowledge bases in order to make further ‘adaptive’ livelihood decisions that will include improved natural resource management.
[Adapted from Author]