With hotter, drier conditions threatening South Africa’s 2026/27 agricultural season, Dr Matelele Lehlogonolo, a scientist at the department of agriculture, explains how local landrace seeds could hold the key to climate resilience.
As South Africa prepares for the anticipated 2026/27 El Niño season, concerns are once again mounting over the country’s agricultural outlook. For grain producers, livestock farmers, policymakers and consumers alike, the prospect of below-average rainfall and higher temperatures raises difficult questions about food production, food prices and rural livelihoods.
While modern improved crop varieties have significantly increased agricultural productivity over the past several decades, there is growing recognition that landrace seeds, traditional crop varieties that have been selected and maintained by farming communities over generations, could play an increasingly important role in helping South African agriculture withstand climatic shocks.
As climate change intensifies and droughts become more frequent, these locally adapted genetic resources may no longer be viewed merely as relics of traditional agriculture, but rather as valuable tools for building resilient food systems.
What is El Niño and why should SA farmers be concerned?
El Niño is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon associated with the warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. Although it occurs thousands of kilometres away from Africa, it has profound effects on global weather patterns.
In southern Africa, El Niño is commonly associated with:
- Reduced summer rainfall
- Higher than normal temperatures
- More frequent heatwaves
- Increased evapotranspiration
- Poor soil moisture
- Greater risk of crop failure
- Reduced pasture availability for livestock
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Although not every El Niño event affects all regions equally, South Africa has historically experienced some of its worst agricultural droughts during strong El Niño years, including those of 1982/83, 1991/92, 2015/16 and, to varying degrees, 2023/24.
For the upcoming 2026/27 production season, climate outlooks suggest producers should prepare for the possibility of drier-than-normal conditions across much of the country’s summer rainfall region. Early preparedness may therefore prove critical.
SA’s dependence on a few crops
South Africa’s agricultural sector relies heavily on a relatively small number of commercial crop species, particularly maize, wheat, soybeans, sunflower, and potatoes.
Within these crops, farmers often cultivate only a limited number of commercial varieties developed primarily for high-input production systems.
These improved varieties perform exceptionally well under favourable growing conditions, but many require adequate rainfall, fertiliser, pesticides, good soil fertility, and intensive management.
Under severe moisture stress, yields can decline dramatically.
This is where genetic diversity becomes critically important.
What exactly are landrace seeds?
Landrace seeds are locally adapted crop varieties that have evolved over many generations through continuous farmer selection under specific environmental conditions.
Unlike commercial hybrids, landraces possess enormous genetic diversity within each population.
Farmers have traditionally selected seed from plants that survived drought, poor soils, pests, diseases, heat and erratic rainfall.
As a result, landraces often contain valuable traits that enable them to cope better with environmental stress.
Examples found across South Africa include sorghum, pearl millet, cowpea, bambara, groundnut, dry beans, pumpkins, indigenous leafy vegetables and traditional maize landraces.
Many rural communities continue to conserve these seeds through household seed saving and community seed banks.
Why landraces matter during drought
One of the greatest strengths of landraces lies in their resilience rather than maximum yield.
Although commercial hybrids often produce higher yields under ideal conditions, landraces frequently outperform them when rainfall becomes scarce.
Their advantages are shown in Figure 1 below:
Figure 1: Advantages of landraces
Lessons from Africa
Several African countries have already demonstrated how landrace conservation contributes to food security during climate extremes.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia has one of Africa’s richest collections of traditional crop varieties. Farmers continue cultivating diverse landraces of teff, barley, wheat, and sorghum.
The country’s strong collaboration between farmers and national genebanks has helped maintain crop diversity while providing breeders with valuable genetic material for developing climate-resilient varieties.
Zimbabwe
Traditional sorghum and pearl millet have repeatedly shown greater drought resilience than maize during dry years.
Government and development partners increasingly promote these traditional cereals in semi-arid regions where maize production remains highly risky.
Malawi
Community seed banks have enabled farmers to preserve local varieties while improving access to drought-tolerant seed after climate-related disasters.
The combination of household seed saving and community-level seed exchange has strengthened local resilience.
Kenya
Participatory breeding programmes involving farmers have successfully combined traditional landraces with modern breeding techniques, producing improved varieties that retain valuable stress-tolerance characteristics.
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South Africa’s untapped opportunity
South Africa possesses considerable indigenous crop diversity, yet much remains underutilised.
Traditional crops such as pearl millet, sorghum, cowpea, bambara, groundnut, amadumbe and indigenous vegetables have historically sustained communities living in drought-prone regions.
However, over time, many farmers shifted towards maize monocultures and commercially bred varieties.
As climate risks increase, there is renewed interest in these traditional crops.
Institutions such as the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), universities, community seed banks and the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre continue conserving valuable landrace collections that could contribute significantly to future crop improvement.
Landraces alone are not enough
While landrace seeds offer significant potential, they should not be viewed as a complete replacement for improved commercial varieties.
Rather, they form part of a broader climate adaptation strategy.
Their greatest value lies in:
- maintaining genetic diversity
- supplying useful traits for breeding programmes
- supporting smallholder farming systems
- reducing production risks
- conserving cultural heritage
- strengthening local seed systems
Future crop breeding will increasingly depend on the unique genes found within landrace populations to develop varieties capable of thriving under hotter and drier climates.
Strengthening seed systems before the next drought
Preparing for future El Niño events requires coordinated action across South Africa’s agricultural sector.
Priority actions include:
- Expanding the collection and conservation of landrace seeds.
- Supporting community seed banks and household seed-saving initiatives.
- Encouraging participatory plant breeding involving farmers and researchers.
- Promoting drought-tolerant traditional crops in vulnerable districts.
- Improving awareness among farmers of the value of agricultural biodiversity.
- Integrating landrace conservation into national climate adaptation strategies.
- Investing in research on climate-resilient indigenous crops.
- Facilitating seed exchange networks while maintaining seed quality standards.
A future rooted in diversity
The anticipated 2026/27 El Niño serves as another reminder that climate uncertainty is becoming the new normal.
Building resilient agriculture is no longer simply about increasing yields; it is about reducing risk.
Landrace seeds represent thousands of years of farmer innovation and natural adaptation. Their rich genetic diversity may hold many of the answers needed to secure future food production under increasingly unpredictable climates.
For commercial producers, integrating climate-resilient varieties into production systems could reduce vulnerability. For smallholder farmers, maintaining traditional seed systems can provide an affordable and locally adapted safety net. For plant breeders, landraces remain an irreplaceable reservoir of genes for tomorrow’s improved cultivars.
As South Africa faces another potentially challenging growing season, the country’s greatest agricultural insurance policy may already exist; not in laboratories alone, but in the seed stores, community seed banks and fields of farming families who have safeguarded these genetic treasures for generations.
In an era of climate uncertainty, preserving landrace diversity is no longer merely a conservation exercise. It is an investment in South Africa’s future food security.
- The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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