Water research commission

Innovative, appropriate and sustainable interventions including (a) internal management measures; and (b) External policy measures

Innovative internal management measures other than those listed above (section 6.3) are by definition, novel, and thus need to be determined through an intensive search of NGOs, agricultural entrepreneurs, and engineering scientists. So far the project has engaged with Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) (see box 1), Departments of Agriculture, Department of Water Affairs., the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) amongst others and many of the suggestions incorporated in Section 6.4 emanate from these stakeholders.


BOX 1: Resilience and response-ability: Towards just water service provision in the context of climate change

Pereira T, Wilson J (2010)

Abstract:

Climate change will impact on water service provision, yet it is not integrated into water sector policies and plans. This paper unpacks some of the reasons for this disjuncture: the complex and overwhelming challenge of universal water provision even in the absence of climate change; and the real threat that climate change poses to predictable water availability. Current climate change response policies and practices fall short of what is necessary and also threaten to deepen social inequity. Without considered intervention, climate change impacts on water provision will exacerbate social stratification and inequality, making the lives of poor people harsher and even more marginalised by further limiting access to quality water and sanitation services that are necessary to support a safe, healthy and dignified life. The paper argues that shifts need to happen at both personal and structural levels to build effective resilience, and suggests interventions that could facilitate these shifts.

http://tinyurl.com/b3vnms5

This process will continue and where possible the success (or otherwise) of any these will be documented.

External policy measures infer:

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  a lack of suitable policies within the agricultural sector,
  
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  non-execution of existing policies, or
  
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  a need for existing policies to be reviewed and amended.
  

Climate change policy that recognises climate change as a threat to agriculture includes some national strategies and responses. Specific legislation, such as the Water Act, Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act (including soil conservation) and The Biodiversity Act are aimed at general conservation of agricultural and other resources.

Specific agricultural-relevant policies are contained in the National Climate Change Response Strategy and the Climate Change Sector Plan for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. These are summarised below.

6.5.1 The National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS)

The National Climate Change Response Strategy and White Paper, developed using country

study reports compiled on sectoral basis together with information from the IPCC Third Assessment report, recognises that climate change is a cross cutting issue that has ramifications for diverse activities in other government departments and thus requires the joint action of government departments in a coordinated manner, to ensure that response measures are acceptable to all and synergistic towards a clear national focus. The strategy recognises the limited general awareness on the likely impacts of climate change and readiness for such impacts and thus emphasizes building capacity within government by efficiently harnessing available skills and competencies.

The Strategy and White Paper calls for the formulation of policies that will adequately address climate change adaptation and mitigation in all sectors. With a number of key interventions on various adaptation and possible mitigation options proposed, the strategy also calls for the development of detailed action plans with defined time scales.

General mandates from the NCCRS that apply to the agriculture sector

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  Agriculture urgently has to strengthen its resilience to climate change impacts and has to develop and implement policies, measures, mechanisms and infrastructure that protect its various components (commercial, emerging, rainfed, irrigated, crops, livestock, plantation forestry etc.).
  
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  Develop and implement education, training and public awareness programmes on climate change within the broader agriculture sector and its highlighting its effects in order to promote and facilitate scientific, technical and managerial skills as well as public access to information, public awareness of and participation in addressing climate change.
  

Agriculture specific issues from the NCCRS

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  Climate resilience needs to address issues of strategic national importance, in this context, for example, to food security and its links to water, health (human, livestock and plant) and land reform.
  
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  Being the largest consumer of water in South Africa (mainly through irrigation), agriculture is vulnerable to changes in water availability as well as increased chemical water pollution and soil erosion from more projected increases in intense rainfall events and increased evapotranspiration.
  
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  Under-resourced, small-scale and subsistence farmers are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
  
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  Commercial agriculture is a significant contributor to GDP and to employment. With its full contribution, including multipliers, agriculture contributes up to 12% of South Africa’s GDP and 30% of its national employment. Crop failures can therefore have a significant impact on the nation’s economy.
  
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  The following should be considered, explicitly or implicitly, in light of projected CC:
  

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  A climate-resilient agricultural response depends on the recognition that agriculture should provide not only food, but also a range of other environmental and socio-economic benefits.
  
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  Important as input-intensive commercial agriculture is, it can sometimes have negative environmental, social and economic externalities, which may be exacerbated by climate change.
  
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  The appropriate use of small-scale labour-intensive agriculture techniques and its various overall benefits (e.g. job creation, empowerment, food security, contribution to biodiversity) should also be considered from a climate change perspective.
  
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  Modelling of climate change scenarios is vital to informing land use planning decisions in agriculture in as much as they that determine the mix of livestock and crop cultivation, as well as the types of crops that are likely to be commercially viable under projected future climate scenarios.
  
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  Impacts of alien invasive plant species, which reduce streamflow and may consequently compromise already scarce water resources as well as reducing biodiversity, need to be evaluated through a CC lens.
  
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  The potential for sustainable biofuel production under conditions of climate change, and its possible impacts on food security, needs to be evaluated.
  
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  Issues surrounding grassland degradation through injudicious grazing and burning regimes, as well as the reversal of those negative effects through veld rehabilitation, need to be addressed from a CC perspective.
  

6.5.2 The Climate Change Sector Plan for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

This was developed by Dept of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) in line with the National Disaster Management Framework of 2005 and in fulfilment of the requirements of the National Climate Change Response Strategy.

It was considered desirable to put into place a climate change-related plan of action to increase climate intelligence namely awareness and knowledge of, and to plan actions related to, anthropogenic activities impacting the future of all. The basic approach of the sector plan is climate smart agriculture, which entails the integration of land suitability, land use planning, agriculture, forestry and fisheries to ensure that synergies are properly captured and that these synergies will enhance resilience, adaptive capacity and mitigation potential.

6.5.3 Other initiatives within the agriculture and forestry sector

The Working Group on Climate Change (WGCC) convened, coordinated and chaired by the Directorate Climate Change and Disaster Management (DCCDM) developed the climate change discussion document: "Climate Change and the agricultural sector in South Africa", seeking to synthesize the sector and create awareness on the current perceptions and follow-up actions necessary to address the risks and challenges relating to the impacts of climate change on agriculture.
The Department of Agriculture in the Western Cape has embarked on a Western Cape Agricultural Research Forum research and development plan that accounts for the risks associated with climate change. Three of the four strategic drivers that relate to climate change are shown below in Table 53.

Table 53: Strategic Drivers for Agriculture

STRATEGIC DRIVER 1	ACTION TO BE TAKEN (WHAT)
Optimise crop and soil interface	Soil Survey & analysis of field crop production area in the WC (fly-over project) add climate also attention to alternative and new crops Identify areas not suitable for agricultural production
STRATEGIC DRIVER 3	ACTION TO BE TAKEN (WHAT)
Optimal cropping/livestock matching (alternative crops, including value adding to current crops)	Aerial Survey of current production area (fly-over project) Identification of land available for production or not suitable for production
	Synchronise with soil/climate survey
	Identify alternative and new crops suitable to the region
	Climate change influence on market access vulnerability study Consumer trends, future scenario
STRATEGIC DRIVER 4	ACTION TO BE TAKEN (WHAT)
Agro-processing	Determine the existing research capacity available
	Small scale processing – identify opportunities
	Enhance the integration of processed products up and down in the value chain

7.