10th U6+ Consortium of African Universities International Conference

Climate change negatively affects smallholder farmers in South Africa, and several factors, including ageing water infrastructure and ineffective governance systems, exacerbate these impacts. A concurrent embedded mixed-methods research design was used to collect data from smallholder farmers across 15 historical towns in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. A total of 191 participants either answered questionnaires, were interviewed, participated in focus group discussions, or attended stakeholder workshops. The findings revealed that while farmers demonstrate notable resilience through self-reliance and local innovation, systemic barriers severely constrain their adaptive capacity. These barriers included inequitable water allocation, insecure land tenure, unresponsive institutions, and inadequate infrastructure maintenance. Many farmers could not secure formal water licenses because they did not own the land they farmed, a direct legacy of historical dispossession. Governance gaps further compounded these difficulties. Catchment management agencies remain largely non-functional at the local level, policy implementation is weak, and accountability mechanisms are almost absent. Historically disadvantaged groups continue to bear the brunt of these institutional failures. The study demonstrated an urgent need for integrated, participatory solutions that go beyond physical infrastructure to address institutional fragmentation. Several policy proposals emerged from the study. These include streamlining water licensing processes to make them accessible to landless farmers and establishing local water management councils to enable genuine local participation. In addition, there is a need to scale up climate-resilient infrastructure, such as solar-powered drip irrigation and lined dams, and to embed indigenous knowledge into formal adaptation planning. Without such coordinated reforms, smallholder farmers are likely to remain vulnerable to climate shocks, delaying achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.