Drought Disaster Risk Reduction through Agriculture Development, the Role of Appropriate Technology Transfer: Experiences from Swaziland

Abstract

Agriculture is vulnerable to climate change posing challenges for development and poverty reduction. Recurrent droughts have affected Swaziland significantly more so because many households depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and to compound to this, the country has been affected by general economic decline and the impact of HIV and AIDS, creating vicious cycles of vulnerability, poverty and food insecurity for the poor. Drought in the Lowveld agro-ecological zone affects household economy and food security, with major impacts being reduction in agricultural production and water availability for domestic purposes. This study evaluated the impact of drought mitigation programs and the nature of the farming community response to the droughts in the Lowveld between 2007 and 2012. The study involved use of both qualitative and quantitative approaches where primary data were collected from Non-Governmental Organizations’ drought mitigation programs beneficiaries. The findings show that drought was a major contributor to food insecurity which in turn impacted on the health and productivity of the farmers. Communities resorted to reactive planning and response to drought and its impact, which was compounded by inadequacy of the extension support services especially such as lack of media for disseminating early-warning information and drought mitigation information. The uptake of drought mitigation programs have been slow, attributed to poor beneficiary targeting as well as a high food aid dependency syndrome. Most NGOs still use top down approach for agriculture extension as well as having a tendency of giving relief assistance without thorough sustainability planning, which has affected overall uptake of development programs.

Keywords: Climate Change, Drought, Disaster Risk Reduction, Resilience, HIV/AIDS, coping strategies, climate smart agriculture.