Three key issues in rural policy are often discussed in isolation from one another: smallholder livestock production systems, the socio-economic impacts of climate change, and redistributive land reform.
Across Southern Africa, all three are key to developing policies and programmes that enhance the sustainability of livestock-oriented rural livelihood strategies. Yet the complex and variable manner in which these three key issues intersect with each other in the region is a relatively neglected research area. Our current study aims to explore existing practices of dealing with climate change in post-land reform settings, to discover how land beneficiaries are managing their livestock amid climate change and what we can learn from them – and how policy makers should build on these to promote resilient smallholder livestock systems.
We released a new report on how climate change is affecting livestock owners, and how land reform can support them as they attempt to mitigate the climate crisis’ impact.
Read the report
Read more about this project
Authors
Professor Ben Cousins received his PhD from the University of Zimbabwe in 1997. He is the founding director of PLAAS in 1995, held a SARChI Chair in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies from 2010 to 2019, and retired in 2020. He is currently an Emeritus Professor affiliated to PLAAS. His research focuses on agricultural production, property rights and power relations in land reform contexts.
Dr Igshaan Samuels received his PhD from the University of Cape Town in 2013. He has worked at the Agricultural Research Council since 2008. His work focuses on the ecology and management of different rangeland systems, and how social, economic, environmental and governance factors impact on the conditions of these rangelands.
Dr Tapiwa Chatikobo joined PLAAS as a post-doctoral fellow in 2024 after attaining his PhD in 2023 from the University of the Western Cape. Dr Chatikobo is part of a research team looking at livelihood changes 25 years after Zimbabwe’s major land reform.
Clement Cupido is a rangeland ecologist at the Agricultural Research Council, based at the Biodiversity and Conservation Biology Department at the University of the Western Cape. He has an MSc, and his research is focused on rangeland ecology and range management in the arid and semi-arid areas of South Africa.
