Drought management skills a must for SA producers

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

• A stakeholder engagement workshop was recently conducted by AgriSETA and Stellenbosch University (SU) to share their findings on their project of a systematic review of the status quo and need of drought management skills and training needs in the agricultural sector.
• The study was conducted to investigate if there is a need for training in drought management skills and procedures.
• The study’s aim and objective was to identify skills gaps of farmers and key agricultural professionals.
• Several challenges such as a lack of resources, illiteracy amongst the farmers and a lack of appropriate technology are preventing agricultural professionals to obtain the necessary drought management skills.
• Drought management skill training for farmers and key agri-professionals can be provided by stakeholders through AgriSETA.

A stakeholder engagement workshop was recently conducted by AgriSETA and Stellenbosch University (SU) to share their findings on their project of a systematic review of the status quo and need of drought management skills and training needs in the agricultural sector.

Prof Kennedy Dzama, vice-dean of animal breeding of the department of animal science of SU and a team member of the research project, gave a short introduction to the project and shared the project objectives with the attendees. The following points were touched upon:

Project justification – a training needs assessment:

• Strengthen the adaptive capacity of key professionals.
• Identify skills gap in drought preparedness and mitigation.
• Allow for prioritisation of training needs.
• Training in drought management to improve food, nutrition, and income security.

Aims and objectives of the study:

• To assess the status quo of the drought impact preparedness, mitigation skills gap and training needs in the agricultural sector in South Africa.
• Conducting a systematic review of the status quo of skills gap of farmers and key professionals in the agricultural society.

Read more about its effect on smallholder livestock farmers here.

Objective of workshop:

• To share the research review and survey’s findings on drought management skills gap and training needs of farmers and key professionals in the agricultural sector.
• To obtain consensus on the most important priority areas for training on drought management.

Read more about drought lessons learnt in the Kalahari here.

Findings of the review:

In a presentation of the preliminary findings by Dr Chenaimoyo Katiyatiya of SU, it came to light that the vulnerability to drought in developing countries has been increasing, despite of the implementation of the ex-post drought crisis management strategies. In South Africa, ex-ante drought management has evolved, even though challenges such as a lack of financial resources curbing its effectiveness.

According to Dr Katiyatiya, there is an extensive review of findings on drought, as it is considered one of the major hydroclimatic global natural disasters the world is dealing with. During the latest drought, 2,7 million South Africans were affected, and farmers have lost about $692 000 (US dollars). Agricultural produce and animal feed supplies had gone down by 8,4%. Sheep production has declined with 30%, goats with 40%, and cattle herds with 20%.

Direct impacts:

• Reduced crop yields.
• Increased livestock mortality.
• Decreased food production.

Indirect impacts:

• Increased food prices.
• Unemployment.
• Migration to urban areas.

Effect of drought on crop production skills:

• The study found that skilled workers in the field crop subsector are scarce.
• It also determined that, over the years, the horticulture industry has been dependant on the traditional access to cheap and unskilled labour force.

Effect of drought on livestock production skills:

• The poultry industry experienced job losses in the drought.
• Reduced crop production subsequently led to a reduction in poultry feeds, decreased broiler numbers and workers.
• There is growing pressure on closing the skills gap on the quantity and quality hard-to-fill vacancies.
• In the red meat industry, there is a reduced number of experienced, skilled, and ageing workforce due to job cuts during the drought.

Development of key emerging agricultural skills for drought management:

The study further found that South Africa requires more of the following:

• Agribusiness management skills.
• Agricultural research, technology, and innovation skills.
• Partnership skills.

Take home message:

• Drought causes adverse effects to the agriculture industry.
• The effects of drought had an impact on the need for skilled professionals.
• There is a need for the enhancement of skills development and to close the gap for scarce hard-to-fill and emerging skills vacancies.
• Public private partnerships are needed to transfer skills, technology, and services to farmers.

With regards to the survey, Jabulani Majaha of SU said that agriculture supports 8,5 million people. During 2014 and 2015, there was quite a change due to the drought in South Africa. In this period, it was observed that farmers and key agricultural professionals had drought risk management skill competencies. Majaha added that there was no clarity regarding government-supported drought disaster preparedness and mitigation measures.

The survey also took into consideration:

• The social, economic, and environmental effects on farmers was considered.
• The proportion (%) of farmers with selected agricultural drought management skills.
• Farmers drought management skills gaps.
• Socio-economic factors influencing the ability of farmers to cope with the impacts.

Effects of droughts:

• Work overload.
• Difficulty in advising farmers.
• Distress and anxiety and low morale.

Read more about climate smart livestock farming practices here.

Challenges faced by farmers during droughts:

• Lack of resources.
• Illiteracy among the farmers.
• Farmers’ resistance to adapt to improved technologies.
• Lack of appropriate technology.
• Lack of farmers’ cooperation regarding training/field days.
• Erosion of the functional system of agricultural extension.

Conclusion

• All farmers had limited drought management skills: water management and drought monitoring and early warning system.
• Extension officers require training: preparedness planning, interpreting, and analysing information, adaptation and mitigation, and recovery and rehabilitation.
• Disaster management officers require training: disaster policies by the responsible departments.

Recommendations

• Drought management skill training for farmers and key agri-professionals can be provided by stakeholders through AgriSETA.
• The Department of Agriculture should improve the number of agricultural extension officers to the farmer ratio.
• Improved implementation of agricultural drought management policies by the responsible departments is required.

For more information, contact AgriSETA on 012 301 5600 or info@agriseta.co.za, and Stellenbosch University on 021 808 9111 or info@sun.ac.za. – Carin Venter, Plaas Media