Smallholder farmers’ adoption decision-making regarding soil erosion control on food security in South Africa

Abstract

Background: The objective of this paper was to evaluate how smallholder farmers’ adoption decision-making regarding the control of soil erosion influence food security in South Africa, using the case of farming at Upper and Lower Areas of Didimana, South Africa. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 60 randomly selected farmers. Farmers’ total income was used as a proxy for food security. Data were analysed using the multiple linear regression analysis, because the dependent variable was continuous. Result: As expected, farmers who had increases in quality of produce had higher probabilities for increased total income. Also, farmers who preferred their traditional erosion-control methods as against extension-recommended, had higher potentials for increased overall income, which was unexpected. Further, farmers whose sustainability was impacted the most by soil erosion had lesser probabilities for increases in their overall income. The conclusion is that the adoption of soil erosion-control measures is significant in increasing farmers’ food security potentials in the study area.