KZN smallholder farmers battle drought, disease, and poverty

A total of 40.5% of people in KwaZulu-Natal live below the poverty line, R796 per person per month (R27 a day); this is the amount of money that an individual will need to afford the minimum required daily energy intake. The province accounts for the highest rural poverty at 29%. Smallholder farmers in Zululand say farming is their last line of defence against hunger.

Community leaders Aaron Mlambo, Joseph Mbatha and Sho Mbatha gathered outside their homes to address problems of climate change faced in the area of KwaNongoma, in northern KwaZulu-Natal. They were joined by other subsistence farmers as they counted their losses under a tree with Daily Maverick.

Aaron Mlambo said: “We face drought often in this area, and extreme heat, and this is part of what makes the goats really sick. I have lost eight out of 40 goats at one point. Our forefathers also had goats and gardens and they didn’t face these problems.”

Once a month, livestock farmers in a village in KwaNongoma bring out about 600 of their goats to dip them in medicine that helps to get rid of ticks that can cause diarrhoea, flu-like symptoms and, eventually, death.

This is one of the climate-adaptation strategies introduced by non-profit organisations in the community. Daily Maverick interviewed smallholder farmers in KwaNongoma, Ulundi, and Msinga about how they are experiencing climate change and what they are doing to cope.

In early 2025, KwaZulu-Natal faced a severe case of foot-and-mouth disease, which affects hooved animals such as cows and sheep. The province continues to be hit with flash floods that leave damaged infrastructure and take lives.

Although this is a challenge for everyone, these events cause smallholder farmers to lose their livelihoods and they are beginning to blame climate change for the frequent illness of livestock and whole harvests being wiped out.

Farmers from kwaNongoma, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, are battling with their livestock suffering from factors related to climate change. Photo: Mandla Langa

Droughts, irregular seasons, colder winters, longer winters, heat waves, and cyclones are some of the challenges they face. Nhlanhla Mthembu, a project lead at HPSA (formerly Heifer International South Africa), says the organisation has had to come up with adaptation strategies to help smallholder livestock farmers.

HPSA is a community-development organisation that partners with indigent rural communities to end hunger and poverty in South Africa and care for the Earth. The Climate Champions project assists 25 to 30 households in different villages throughout northern KZN.

The project is aimed at goat farmers creating sustainable livelihoods in the face of climate change. The project includes teaching farmers about the causes and impacts of climate change.

High mortality

“We also asked them what they saw. They mentioned the challenge of ticks, changing vegetation, and high mortality of small goats due to diarrhoea and hunger. Some of these are caused by high temperatures and inclement weather patterns,” Mthembu said.

“We had to look at various preventive interventions instead of treating them, because you cannot always use antibiotics as this can create resistance. We tried many things, but we found an affordable anti-bacterial, milk-infused medicine that can help, especially the pregnant goats. This has resulted in the 90% survival of younger goats.”

Mthembu led a short study involving more than 300 farmers who reported high mortality rates in goats, From 5 935 goats, 3 737 goats died, with 76% dying from coccidiosis/diarrhoea. This was revealed by a study carried out in five districts — Zululand, uMkhanyakude, King Cetshwayo, uMzinyathi and uThukela.

Mthembu says the dip was a challenge as traditionally only cows got dipped, but when it was built five years ago the community embraced it and worked together to build a system that can hold high volumes of goats on dipping day. They have to share a single five-litre bottle of the anti-microbial, antifungal medication as it costs R2 000. Each household owns an average of 20 to 40 goats.

Goats in kwaNongoma, northern KwaZulu-Natal. Photo: Mandla Langa

Simelani Nkosingiphile, 25, is one of the smallholder farmers. She relies on subsistence farming to take care of her family, because she is unemployed and receives a child grant.

“Our goats were dying. With each wave of sickness, we would lose four to seven goats. We were shocked to learn that you can dip a goat, but ever since we dipped the goats, it makes a big difference,” Nkosingiphile said. “The goats don’t get sick any more. Before we dipped them we knew that they had ticks when they began limping, lost weight, got sick and eventually died.”

This makes a huge difference because medicine costs an average of R1 000. Nkosingiphile said she had to sell a goat to buy medicine.

“I grew up with goats in the homestead, so I learned to take care of sick goats from a young age. Before we used plants and other natural ways to do it, but now they get sick more often than they ever did because of temperatures, so I also ask my mom to put money together so we can get an injection or something else that is needed,” Nkosingiphile said.

She also farms crops and sells these to buy the food her household does not grow.

Farmers also noted the huge loss they experience in dry seasons.

“We also had a challenge during dry seasons: goats would die, especially the little ones. They didn’t have enough food because the grass and trees were dry. Even the mothers would be hungry and kick their kids, which eventually die from hunger,” Nkosingiphile said.

Crop farming

In Ulundi, a group of older women use a plot of land to farm maize, beans and sweet potatoes. Daily Maverick spoke to three women who have an average of 11 family members who are fed through this subsistence farming, pensions, and grants.

When asked if any of them had a working family member, they lowered their shoulders and looked dismayed.

“Our children can’t find work, there are no jobs. That’s why we are here even though our backs and knees are giving up because we are old. If we don’t farm, our children will go hungry,” said Gogo Batholeni Shobede, 79. They farm to eat and sell off some of the surplus food.

Shobede used a walking stick to point at her small square of the garden.

“My maize came out great, but pests have eaten it. If there are cobs left, I will have to try again next season.”

Nongoma resident Jabulani Lombo tries to deal with the alien weed that has spread all over their area, killing indigenous plants. Photo: Mandla Langa

Their garden is in a low-lying area at the bottom of a hill.

“When there have been heavy rains, you cannot even walk into the garden, it floods completely,” Shobede said.

A study published in February 2025 analysed the impact of climate change in South Africa and proposed adaptation responses.

The researchers predicted that climate change will severely impact crop production, projecting decreased yields for major crops such as maize and wheat.

“There remains, however, some debate on the benefits of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration for C3 crops and how limited water and elevated temperatures might negate these benefits.

“Climate change will reduce the amount of arable land in South Africa, presenting significant challenges for food production, employment, rural-urban migration, and land reform policies. Integrated multidisciplinary approaches are needed to address these challenges, drawing on the humanities, economics, and Stem expertise,”

Community leaders Aaron Mlambo, Joseph Mbatha and Sho Mbatha gather outside their homes to address the problems caused by climate change in the area. Photo: Mandla Langa/Daily Maverick

Grim insights

Thembekile Dhlamini has been researching the impact of climate change on smallholder farmers and shared the grim insights she has observed.

“Livestock suffer from extreme heat and that affects their reproduction. With the focus on just cattle and poultry, they both have reduced feed intake, resulting in reduced milk and egg production, respectively. Dehydration can also affect their organs due to heat stress,” Dhlamini said.

When asked what the impact of extreme weather on crop farming was she stated that different crops were affected by extreme temperatures differently, but by heat, cold and rain. There was a decreased yield and production of crops. There were also increased pests and diseases that affected crops, leading to reduced yield.

“To adapt to climate change, you have to receive climate information that most of these farmers do not have. Generally, small-scale farmers have no adaptive capacity due to lack of funding and resources. Government institutions need to make funding available to increase their adaptive capacity. On resources, currently technology has taken over. Commercial farmers are equipped, but small-scale farmers are often not,” Dhlamini said.

Seventy-nine-year-old Batholeni Shobede says that due to the late arrival of the rainy season last year, they were forced to delay planting. Photo: Mandla Langa

Milla Toth is a geospatial and data scientist for the TerraClim agri-data hub. She gave a talk on climate change at the Food for Mzansi young farmers indaba on 2 April 2025, during which she explained how gathering data on a specific farm helps farmers to understand how to be climate resilient.

In an interview with Daily Maverick, Toth said an increase in pests, ticks, disease and other problems could be accredited to the weather but, to really understand the situation, farmers needed to monitor hourly weather cycles, because what was particularly detrimental to plants was big temperature changes.

“You can’t just take a daily average, monthly average, or yearly average, you have to look at every hour,” Toth said. “For example, if you see that your farm stays cool until 10am but jumps into the 30-degree bracket, that will cause heat stress on crops and have a detrimental effect.”

Angeline Dlamini from Mbilane in Ulundi checks up on her sweet potato crop. Photo: Mandla Langa

TerraClim offers precise climate and environmental insights, helping farmers optimise planting, harvesting and resource management. This leads to increased productivity and more sustainable practices. The service is accessible to farms of all sizes, from small-scale operations to large commercial enterprises. The outfit says they can tailor their work to meet farmers’ specific needs.

“This data empowers farmers with a deep understanding of their land,” Toll said.

She added that the first step to adapting to climate change was to know what you were adapting to. Different provinces and areas have a different set of challenges.

“Climate change can cause cooling as well, it is not only warming the climate,” Toll said. “So even though I could not say without studying that specific area, they could be facing invasive species because of too much rain or not enough — we have not worked with the impact on livestock specifically.”

Msinga

The senior facilitator of the UKZN Farmer Support Group in Msinga, Bongumusa Mbatha, shared some of the practical action taken to avoid crop loss for smallholder farmers in the area.

“The challenges brought by climate change have affected many livelihoods, but farming is the hardest hit, with small-scale farmers being the most vulnerable and getting less attention to recover,” Mbatha said.

“One big challenge has been intense rainfalls, which are causing severe erosion, removing good topsoil (and) leaving unproductive hard pans. Interventions have been conducted on an ongoing basis as the threat keeps increasing over time as climate change intensifies.”

Some of the interventions include:

Contour ridges: Every year before the rainy season, contours are constructed in lower-lying gardens with a history of flooding. Although this has been done to flood-prone gardens, the practice has been adopted by many groups due to the flooding that occurs during the rainy season.
Water-wise crops: These are crops produced ideally to use land during the very dry season, demanding less water and coping well with heat stress. Indigenous crops have proven to work well and are produced to increase capacity so that many farmers can have them.
Changing irrigation system: Adopting a waterless irrigation system such as an underground bottle system has been an intervention in most cases of the decline in water a source.

Climate change is expensive to deal with, and mitigation adds costs for farmers. The cost of crops lost to higher temperatures, flooding, and pests, or losing seven goats in a herd of 20 leads to great loss of income, and hunger.

This article was first published by Daily Maverick. It was supported by the Africa-China Reporting Project based at the Wits Centre for Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

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