Title: DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS STATUS OF FARMERS IN THE NGUNI CATTLE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT AND THE SIRE SUBSIDY SCHEME IN NORTH WEST PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA
Abstract: The objective of this study was to assess the drought preparedness status of the farmers that benefited from the Nguni Cattle Development Project and the Sire Subsidy Scheme in North West Province, South Africa.The data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to research, through a semi-structured questionnaire with five sections that probed into: A) personal information, B) farmer socio-economic resources, C) farm operational resources, D) access to Early Warning Information, and E) constraints to drought preparedness.Collected data were coded, captured and analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS (version 23) into frequency counts, percentages, graphs and tables.The results revealed that, majority of the respondents were African (97.6%); male (74.1%); married (64.3%); between 50 and 64 years of age (43.5%) and (38.8%) had high school education, respectively.Furthermore, most (76%) respondent farmers were not drought prepared with regard to grazing availability; 20% of the farmers were found to have non-dependable sources of water; 60% of the farms did not have any structural units for maintaining fodder banks and 63% did not have enough fodder reserves.Most respondents (84%) had never received drought related early warning information.Respondents cited lack of money (62%) and deficiency of information (58%) as the major constraints to their drought preparedness.The study recommends that the agricultural extensionists' plausible contact (95%) with the farmers should be used to also educate farmers on effective drought mitigation strategies and for dissemination of early warning information.