Drought forces livestock farmers to make tough decisions: our model shows the impact on inequality
Originally published by The Conversation – Articles (AFRICA) — Read the original article →
Climate change is amplifying extreme weather conditions across southern Africa. Dry seasons are getting hotter and drier, while rains are becoming heavier and more concentrated. This means greater swings between production surplus and scarcity for rural communities that make their living from the land.
I’m a scientist who studies the complex interactions of social and ecological processes, and the impacts of decisions about managing natural resources. In a recent study, my co-authors and I sought to understand how changing rainfall patterns might interact with patterns in people’s wealth in southern Africa – specifically, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
We looked at how rainfall might be affected under three fossil fuel emissions scenarios, and how that rainfall might affect the livestock that pastoralist communities can keep. Livestock rearing is practised on 43% of the land in Africa and in many places is the only way to make a living.
