The national grazing strategy of the Republic of South Africa Objectives, achievements and future challenges

Toit, P. F. Du; Aucamp, A.J.; Bruwer, J.J.

doi:10.1080/02566702.1991.9648279

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Vast areas of southern Africa are arid and provide limited options for intensive agricultural production and as a result most of this area is managed as rangeland for extensive livestock production. 6 Choosing appropriate livelihoods in these arid areas is the first of numerous human responses to climate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human response and adaptation to drought in the arid zone: lessons from southern Africa

O'Farrell¹,

Anderson

Milton³

et al. 2009

S. Afr. J. Sci

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Human adaptation and response to drought is primarily through evasion or endurance. A review of historical agricultural practices in southern Africa demonstrates evidence of drought evasion response strategies in well-established transhumance routes, where herders move livestock on a seasonal basis in order to exploit resources subject to different climatic regimes. European settlers to the arid regions of South Africa quickly recognised the necessity of these evasion options to survive drought, and adopted the transhumance practices of indigenous farmers. Areas of geographically diverse resource bases became hotly contested by settlers and indigenous farmers. The success of evasion systems are shown to hinge on good social and institutional support structures. When movement is not an option, drought endurance is pursued by attempting to limit the damage to the natural resource base. This is through a number of means such as forage conservation, varying livestock types and numbers, water and soil conservation and taking up alternative livelihood options. State responses to drought over the last century reflect the general South African pattern of racially divided and unjust policies relating to resource access. Historically the state provided considerable support to white commercial farmers. This support was frequently contradictory in its aims and generally was inadequate to enable farmers to cope with drought. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, the state has intervened less, with some support extended to previously disadvantaged and poor communal farmers. Climate change predictions suggest an increase in drought, suggesting that the adoption of mitigating strategies should be a matter of urgency. To do this South Africa needs to build social and institutional capacity, strive for better economic and environmental sustainability, embed drought-coping mechanisms into land restitution policy to ensure the success of this programme, and acknowledge the diversity of the agricultural sector.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human response and adaptation to drought in the arid zone: lessons from southern Africa

O'Farrell¹,

Anderson

Milton³

et al. 2009

S. Afr. J. Sci

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show abstract

“…largely grass-free) since the early twentieth century, owing mainly to the selective grazing habits of large numbers of livestock (see Hoffman and Cowling 1990;Bond et al 1994). It has been predicted that this 'desertification' will continue into the future (du Toit et al 1991). Hoffman and Cowling (1990) and Hoffman et al (1995), however, provide evidence that areas in the eastern Karoo are rather increasing in grassiness and attribute this in part to increased rainfall.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Fire effects on vegetation in a grassy dwarf shrubland at a site in the eastern Karoo, South Africa

Toit

Berg

O’Connor

2014

African Journal of Range & Forage Science

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Fire is rare in semi-arid eastern Karoo dwarf shrublands, South Africa, and responses to fire are largely unknown. Recent increased grassiness, and hence fuel loads, at Grootfontein in the Eastern Cape allowed an accidental fire (24.3 ha) to carry, and afforded the opportunity to examine compositional and structural effects of fire on a grassy dwarf shrubland. Sampling seven months after the fire, 108 species (102 perennial) were encountered, of which 74 were resprouters, six were fire sensitive (non-sprouters), and the remainder (rare, non-perennial or herbaceous) had an unknown response. The dominant pre-fire shrub, Eriocephalus ericoides, was extirpated by the fire, as was the unpalatable and sometimes invasive Ruschia intricata. All grass species resprouted, and grass became the dominant life-form after the fire, indicating a possible conferred competitive advantage. Resprouting shrubs grew to only a small fraction of their pre-burn size. The unpalatable, aromatic shrub Stachys rugosa was the dominant post-burn shrub. Extirpated species will need to regenerate from seeds, but no seedlings were found in the gaps where shrubs had stood. The widespread ability to resprout confers resilience on this vegetation, but fire does induce changes in structure, in the dominance of life forms, and it decreases canopy cover.

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“…According to Mworia et al (1997), rangeland recovery ability is heavily dependent on the grazing intensity level. The 1984 White Paper on Agricultural Policy highlighted the tremendous deterioration of natural rangelands in South Africa (Du Toit et al, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stocking rate of extensive land-reform livestock farmers during 2018/2019 drought: Bloemfontein grassland biome case study

Mokhesengoane

Westhuizen

Niekerk

2021

S Afr. Jnl. Agric. Ext.

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The study aimed to determine the average stocking rate among land reform beneficiary farmers specialising in livestock production in order to establish differences between calving percentage, fodder availability, and mortality rate of sampled farms, as well as to compare forage scarcities of Land Reform farms with their neighbouring farms during the midsummer drought of 2018/2019 in the Bloemfontein area. The average stocking rate was 5.9 ha/LSU in comparison with the Departmental grazing capacity norm of 6 ha/LSU for rangeland in good condition. However, 31% of the sampled farms were found to be severely overstocked, and the mortality rate on these farms, in relation to grazing capacity of 6 ha/LSU, was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the mortalities on the other remaining farms. Naturally available fodder was found to be heterogeneous, with 37.9% of the respondents observing their available fodder as worse than that of their neighbours. The total mortality of 176.77 LSUs was recorded for the 29 sampled farms. These findings will assist the local extension personnel prevent future rangeland condition degradation and increase land reform farmers’ productivity. The study concluded that training is paramount to farmers’ development and further recommends more research undertakings.

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The national grazing strategy of the Republic of South Africa Objectives, achievements and future challenges

Cited by 12 publications

References 1 publication

Human response and adaptation to drought in the arid zone: lessons from southern Africa

Human response and adaptation to drought in the arid zone: lessons from southern Africa

Fire effects on vegetation in a grassy dwarf shrubland at a site in the eastern Karoo, South Africa

Stocking rate of extensive land-reform livestock farmers during 2018/2019 drought: Bloemfontein grassland biome case study

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