Empowering Resilience: The Impact of Farmer Field Schools on Smallholder Livestock Farmers’ Climate Change Perceptions in Raymond Local Municipality

Experiential learning and discovery through farmer field schools (FFS) have the potential to empower smallholder livestock farmers who face heightened vulnerability to climate change. However, there are various levels of learning and discovery in FFS that can inform smallholder livestock farmer knowledge and perception. Understanding this is vital, as farmers’ perceptions influence their readiness to adopt climate-smart practices, informing effective resilience-building strategies. Therefore, this study sought to investigate and assess the impact of the FFS approach on smallholder livestock farmers’ perceptions of climate change, taking Raymond Local Municipality in South Africa as a case. The design followed by the study was a longitudinal survey, with three pools each signifying various FFS intervention points. The study utilized simple random sampling to collect data from 80 smallholder livestock farmers using structured questionnaires in each of the three cross-sectional pools, while descriptive statistics, Min–Max Normalization, and t-tests were used for analysis. The results show that there was an increase in the awareness of climate change due to the interventions of the FFS. Furthermore, there are cumulative differences between the knowledge and perception towards climate change between the three pooled cross-sections. In conclusion, participating in FFS had a significant impact on farmers’ level of understanding and adaptation to climate change. The study recommends that the government and policymakers extensively promote FFS and support them financially so that they can provide more support to rural farmers as well as enhance knowledge on climate change. This study recommends the provision of workshops and awareness campaigns on climate change for farmers through FFS as this will assist farmers to be more sustainable on their farming systems and production.