Abstract

The study was conducted in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa during the period 2005 to 2009 to investigate factors that affected the decision of small-scale farmers who kept cattle and sheep. The Binary Logistic Regression model was used to investigate farmers’ decision. The results implied that a large number of socio-economic variables affected the decision of farmers on adaptation to climate change. It was concluded that the most significant factors affecting climate change and adaptation were non-farm income, type of weather perceived, livestock ownership, distance to weather stations, distance to input markets, adaptation strategies and annual average temperature. It was recommended that a comparison of the decision to adapt to climate change be investigated further in other areas of similar agro-ecological conditions to ascertain the findings of the study.

Key words: Climate change, small-scale cattle and sheep farming, Binary logistic model.