Abstract Climatic change has a negative impact on people’s livelihoods, agriculture, freshwater supply and other natural resources that are important for human survival. Therefore, understanding how rural smallholder farmers perceive climate change, climate variability, and factors that influence their choices would facilitate a better understanding of how these farmers adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. A Zero-inflated double hurdle model was employed to estimate the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of adaptation strategies and intensity of adoption at the household level in South Africa. Different socioeconomic factors such as gender, age, and experience in crop farming, institutional factors like access to extension services, and access to climate change information significantly influenced the adoption of climate change adaptation strategies among beneficiaries of land reform in South Africa. Concerning intensity of adoption, age, educational level, farming experience, on-farm training, off-farm income, access to information through ICT and locational variables are the significant determinants of intensity of adaptation strategies. Thus, education attainment, non-farm employment, farming experience are significant incentives to enhance smallholder farmers' adaptive capacity through the adoption of many adaptation approaches. This study therefore concluded that farm-level policy efforts that aim to improve rural development should focus on farmers’ education, on-farm demonstration and non-farm employment opportunities that seek to engage the farmers, particularly during the off-cropping season. The income from non-farm employment can be plough-back into farm operations such as the adoption of soil and water conservation, use of improved planting varieties, insurance, among others to mitigate climate variability and subsequently increase productivity. Policies and investment strategies of the government should be geared towards supporting education, providing on-farm demonstration trainings, and disseminating information about climate change adaptation strategies, particularly for smallholder farmers in the country. Thus, the government, stakeholders, and donor agencies must provide capacity-building innovations around the agricultural extension system and education on climate change using information and communication technologies.

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了解小农采用气候变化适应战略：来自南非土地改革受益者的证据

摘要 气候变化对人们的生计、农业、淡水供应和其他对人类生存至关重要的自然资源产生负面影响。因此，了解农村小农如何看待气候变化、气候变异以及影响他们选择的因素将有助于更好地了解这些农民如何适应气候变化的负面影响。采用零膨胀双障碍模型来估计影响南非家庭层面农民采用适应策略和采用强度的因素。不同的社会经济因素，如性别、年龄和作物种植经验，制度因素，如获得推广服务，和获取气候变化信息显着影响了南非土地改革受益者对气候变化适应战略的采用。关于采用强度、年龄、教育水平、耕作经验、农场培训、非农场收入、通过 ICT 获取信息和位置变量是适应战略强度的重要决定因素。因此，教育程度、非农就业、耕作经验是通过采用多种适应方法提高小农适应能力的重要激励因素。因此，本研究得出的结论是，旨在改善农村发展的农场层面的政策努力应侧重于寻求农民参与的农民教育、农场示范和非农就业机会，尤其是在非种植季节。非农就业的收入可以用于农业经营，例如采用水土保持、使用改良的种植品种、保险等，以减轻气候变化并随后提高生产力。政府的政策和投资战略应着眼于支持教育、提供农场示范培训和传播有关气候变化适应战略的信息，特别是针对该国小农的信息。因此，政府、利益相关者和捐助机构必须利用信息和通信技术围绕农业推广系统和气候变化教育提供能力建设创新。非农就业的收入可以用于农业经营，例如采用水土保持、使用改良的种植品种、保险等，以减轻气候变化并随后提高生产力。政府的政策和投资战略应着眼于支持教育、提供农场示范培训和传播有关气候变化适应战略的信息，特别是针对该国小农的信息。因此，政府、利益相关者和捐助机构必须利用信息和通信技术围绕农业推广系统和气候变化教育提供能力建设创新。非农就业的收入可以用于农业经营，例如采用水土保持、使用改良的种植品种、保险等，以减轻气候变化并随后提高生产力。政府的政策和投资战略应着眼于支持教育、提供农场示范培训和传播有关气候变化适应战略的信息，特别是针对该国小农的信息。因此，政府、利益相关者和捐助机构必须利用信息和通信技术围绕农业推广系统和气候变化教育提供能力建设创新。使用改良的种植品种、保险等，以减轻气候变异并随后提高生产力。政府的政策和投资战略应着眼于支持教育、提供农场示范培训和传播有关气候变化适应战略的信息，特别是针对该国小农的信息。因此，政府、利益相关者和捐助机构必须利用信息和通信技术围绕农业推广系统和气候变化教育提供能力建设创新。使用改良的种植品种、保险等，以减轻气候变异并随后提高生产力。政府的政策和投资战略应着眼于支持教育、提供农场示范培训和传播有关气候变化适应战略的信息，特别是针对该国小农的信息。因此，政府、利益相关者和捐助机构必须利用信息和通信技术围绕农业推广系统和气候变化教育提供能力建设创新。提供农场示范培训，并传播有关气候变化适应战略的信息，特别是针对该国的小农。因此，政府、利益相关者和捐助机构必须利用信息和通信技术围绕农业推广系统和气候变化教育提供能力建设创新。提供农场示范培训，并传播有关气候变化适应战略的信息，特别是针对该国的小农。因此，政府、利益相关者和捐助机构必须利用信息和通信技术围绕农业推广系统和气候变化教育提供能力建设创新。