**4.2 Indigenous household strategies for coping with climate change**

In Beitbridge district, common indigenous coping strategies for coping with food insecurity associated with climate change include planting drought-resistant crops (94%) like sorghum and millet which are quite popular (**Table 2**). Rapoko is grown by few farmers. The semi-arid conditions of the district and the unpredictable and variable nature of the rainfall pattern forces farmers to practise probability planting which farmers gave a 72% frequency rating. Traditional adaptation mechanisms like collecting and drying wild fruits for future use, drying some crops for future use and eating wild fruits as household meals all have suppressed frequency ratings of 56 and 52%, respectively. This could be because crops like sweet reeds, groundnuts and watermelon which used to be dried for future use are no longer productively grown in the district because of inadequately distributed

**43**

*N = 100.*

**Table 2.**

maize yields.

**Figure 4.**

*Beitbridge Minority Farmer Communities and Climate Change: Prospects for Sustainability*

soil moisture levels. Traditional fruit trees like *umkhomo, uxakuxaku, umgano* are now very few in Beitbridge because the trees no longer observe their normal reproductive cycle because of rainfall, temperature and soil moisture variability related to climate change. About 68% of the farmers, however, believe planting early maturing varieties of the national staple maize is still helpful in the district. This could be because in climatically favourable years, some farmers get decent

*Mean annual coefficient of variation for Beitbridge district (1982–2012).*

The Venda, Shangani and Suthu also cope with climate change through diversification of economic activities. This mixed economy strategy involves pastoralism, cultivation, hunting, fishing, barter trading, cross-border trading, formal and informal employment and remittances from siblings in the regional Diaspora, mainly South Africa and Botswana. These diverse sources of livelihood help com-

Drying of perennial rivers and springs 78 78 22 22 Late onset of the rains 100 100 0 0 Early cessation of the rains 94 94 6 6 Change in wind patterns 80 80 20 20 Diminishing pastures 88 88 12 12 Cold season warmer 64 64 36 36 Hot season hotter 80 80 20 20

**Evident % Not evident %**

munities remain hopeful even when the climatic regime becomes bleak.

**Environmental evidence Frequency**

*Indigenous household strategies for coping with climate change.*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83816*

*Beitbridge Minority Farmer Communities and Climate Change: Prospects for Sustainability DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83816*

**Figure 4.** *Mean annual coefficient of variation for Beitbridge district (1982–2012).*

soil moisture levels. Traditional fruit trees like *umkhomo, uxakuxaku, umgano* are now very few in Beitbridge because the trees no longer observe their normal reproductive cycle because of rainfall, temperature and soil moisture variability related to climate change. About 68% of the farmers, however, believe planting early maturing varieties of the national staple maize is still helpful in the district. This could be because in climatically favourable years, some farmers get decent maize yields.

The Venda, Shangani and Suthu also cope with climate change through diversification of economic activities. This mixed economy strategy involves pastoralism, cultivation, hunting, fishing, barter trading, cross-border trading, formal and informal employment and remittances from siblings in the regional Diaspora, mainly South Africa and Botswana. These diverse sources of livelihood help communities remain hopeful even when the climatic regime becomes bleak.

