Water research commission

BEYOND THE FARM GATE: LINKAGES BETWEEN FARM-LEVEL VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE VARIABILITY/CHANGE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON THE FOOD VALUE CHAIN

In this phase of the final report we focus on the impacts of the adaptation strategies that have been adopted at the farm-level and how this would impact the entire food value chain of the selected crops in each of the study areas. The first phase of this report had identified the point at which these crops were vulnerable to climate variability/change, and it had attempted to identify some adaptation strategies adopted at the farm level.

Figure 42: A sustainable and inclusive food value chain framework (source FAO, 2013)

In this phase we adopt the sustainable and inclusive food value chain framework of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to facilitate a basic explanation of what a food value chain represents. This is to ensure that all the aspects of the food value chain that are relevant to our study are taken into consideration during our analysis.

FAO (2013) defines a sustainable and inclusive food value chain as “the full range of farms and firms and their successive coordinated value-adding activities that transform raw agriculture materials into food products that are sold to final consumers and disposed after use, in a manner that is profitable throughout the chain, has broad-based benefits for society and does not permanently deplete natural resources”.

The four main stages of a food value chain comprise production (farming), aggregation (post-harvest handling and food storage), processing and distribution (wholesale and retail). In this study we are more concerned with what happens beyond the farm gate (i.e beyond the production phase), and whether there are linkages within vulnerability (and adaptation) at the farm level, and vulnerability (and adaptation) within the specific food value chain. Therefore, we focus of the aggregation (i.e. post-harvest handling and food storage), processing and distributions for each of the crops under the scope of this study.

In analysing a food value chain it is important to understand that value can be added and it can also be subtracted. For instance, value is added during when a particular product undergoes processing or packaging. Meanwhile, value can be subtracted whenever there are post-harvest losses especially during storage and packaging (due to heat waves or other extreme events). We investigate post-harvest losses during storage as a result of extreme events, and how this impact on the entire food value chain.

The value chain actors operate within a global and national environment, and these comprise of the social elements or socio-cultural elements (e.g. customs, beliefs and values), organizational (e.g. partnerships, cooperatives, associations), institutional (e.g. laws, regulations, policies) and infrastructural (e.g. roads, rail lines, electrical grids, telecommunications).

Therefore, a sustainable food value chain could be said to comprise of three scopes:

1. 
   Economic scope – this comprises of the fiscal and commercial sustainability of any practices within the food value chain.
   
2. 
   Social scope – this involves the social and cultural aspect, it basically revolves around how the society views, responds and understands the food value chain and its nuances.
   
3. 
   Environmental scope – this comprises of efficient and sustainable use of resources within the food value chain. It describes the impact of the natural and extreme events on the food value chain.
   

Understanding what goes on within any food value chain with respect to climate variability and change requires a balanced knowledge of what vulnerability entails. We investigate the economic vulnerability, social vulnerability and the environmental vulnerability of each crop within specific food value chain by asking the following questions:

• 
  What is vulnerable?
  
• 
  Who are the vulnerable?
  
• 
  What are they vulnerable to?
  

In this study we consider parts of the vulnerability framework presented by Gbetibouo and Ringer (2009) in figure 43. The figure shows the linkages between vulnerability and adaptation to climate variability/change. We investigate relevant variables within each food value chain with a view to understanding the adaptive capacity (at the farm level and beyond) of each crop within specific food value chain.


Figure 43: A framework for the linkages between vulnerability and adaptation within a food value chain

Source: Mapping South African Farming Sector Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability; after from Gbetibouo and Ringler, 2009
From the chapter on climate impacts, the following was stated:

• 
  If climate change impacts on the cost of production, it will obviously have a positive or negative impact on production costs and the value at which farmers are prepared to sell their product; either at a higher or lower value. This assumes that farmers are price setters, which is NOT the case for wheat and maize farmers who negotiate a price with silos and cooperatives, based on the ruling prices.
  
• 
  It is also important to take a holistic view on production regions, especially with export products. Some regions (of the world) will gain (positive impact of climate change for specific region) and others will lose (negative impact). The impact of climate change on the value chains of specific products from specific countries will therefore not be the same. In countries or regions where climate change will have a positive impact on production (e.g. decrease in input costs, increase in yield) it will in general result in a positive feedback in the value chain and vice versa.
  
• 
  In general the predictions for South Africa are that climate change will result in more droughts and more floods (more extremes). It can therefore be expected that this variability in climate will also result in larger variability of supplies and therefore more volatility in world markets for agricultural products (increase in price variability).
  

We present the linkages and implications on the food value chain for the following crops:

1. 
   Wheat
   
2. 
   Table grapes
   
3. 
   Maize
   
4. 
   Mangoes/Citrus
   

The study areas for the crops wheat and table grapes were both in the Western Cape, a region expected to become warmer by up to 2 degrees C by 2100 and with rainfall expected to decrease in autumn and perhaps increase around the mountains, combined with the effect of increasing water demand, will be one of heat stress and water shortages (Midgley et. al, 2005).

1.