**1. Introduction**

Agriculture, including the livestock sector, is one of the industries on which drought has a major influence, causing loss of agricultural production. The impact of agricultural drought on livestock production is becoming a significant physical stressor in temperate and humid regions, including South Africa [1]. Agricultural drought impacts livestock production and quality, which is dependent on several factors, such as intensity, recurrent agricultural drought, vulnerability, water stress, and socio-economic factors [2]. Globally, agricultural drought is the costliest natural disaster compared to other natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Loss caused by agricultural drought is estimated to cost from USD 6 to 8 billion annually [3]. An estimated 40 million people have been affected by drought in southern Africa, with a cereal deficit of 9.3 million tonnes recorded at the end of the 2015/16 cropping season [4,5]. The high regional deficit raised staple food prices and constrained the already limited purchasing power of vulnerable families. More than 643,000 livestock deaths were reported in five countries alone due to lack of feed and water and disease outbreaks in southern Africa. In addition, the income sources of many households were diminished due to the loss of crops, livestock, labor, trading, and self-employment activities [4,5]. During 2015, agricultural production in South Africa declined by 8.4% due to drought. The livestock industry, for example, had a 15% reduction in the national herd stock due to the drought [6].

Smallholders are characterized by labor-intensive farming, adoption of traditional production techniques, and inadequate institutional capacity and support [7]. Smallholder agriculture in general and the smallholder livestock sector in particular remain at the center of rural development policy discussions in Africa [8]. Smallholder agriculture plays a significant role and will contribute to feeding approximately 9 billion people worldwide

**Citation:** Myeki, V.A.; Bahta, Y.T. Determinants of Smallholder Livestock Farmers' Household Resilience to Food Insecurity in South Africa. *Climate* **2021**, *9*, 117. https:// doi.org/10.3390/cli9070117

Academic Editors: Christopher Robin Bryant, Andrea Vitali and Azzeddine Madani

Received: 12 April 2021 Accepted: 2 July 2021 Published: 13 July 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

by 2050, although there are still debates about the role of smallholder agriculture. The contribution of agriculture to poverty reduction depends on its own growth performance, its indirect impact on growth in other sectors, the extent to which poor people participate in the sector, and the sector's size in the overall economy. Agriculture is significantly more effective than non-agriculture in reducing poverty among the poorest of the poor (as reflected by the USD 1/day squared poverty gap). It is also up to 3.2 times better at reducing USD 1/day headcount poverty in low-income and resource-rich countries (including those in Sub-Saharan Africa), at least when societies are fundamentally equal. However, when it comes to the better-off poor (reflected in the USD 2/day measure), non-agriculture has the edge [9].

Smallholder livestock farming contributes to improving the livelihoods of the rural poor in South Africa and plays a vital role by providing food and has the potential to strengthen households' economy. Livestock production plays multiple roles in the lives of the poor and meets the various objectives desired by resource-poor farmers [10]. Smallholder agriculture, including the livestock sector in South Africa, has been identified as a notable vehicle to foster poverty reduction, solve household food insecurity, and enhance resilient livelihoods.

Even though smallholder agriculture has the potential to enhance resilience, the decline in average rainfall and rapid population growth have resulted in food insecurity [11]. In Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder livestock farmers do not produce output beyond household consumption. Their output does not generate enough income nor do they engage in off-farm or non-farm income-generating activities, even in export. The insufficient production is further undermined by factors such as a lack of assets (resources), a lack of adaptive capacity, climate change (agricultural drought), a lack of social safety nets, increasing farm input prices, a lack of information, and inadequate institutional infrastructure [12,13].

International and national studies, such as those of Boukary et al. [11], Melketo et al. [14], Ogunniyi et al. [15], Chamdimba et al. [16], and Galarza [17], focus on the impact of Jatropha cultivation for resilience in food insecurity, pastoral households' resilience, rural households' resilience to food insecurity, drought impact, coping and adaptation, and socio-economic drivers of food security. However, none of the studies empirically assess smallholder livestock farmers' resilience to food insecurity in the livestock sector.

To our knowledge, no studies have specifically focused on smallholder livestock farming households' resilience to food insecurity. Therefore, this study identified factors affecting livestock farmers' agricultural drought resilience to food insecurity in Northern Cape Province, South Africa, using a survey, principal component analysis, and structural equation approach. The findings of this study could help government and policymakers to develop suitable policies and mitigation strategies to build and boost smallholder livestock farmers' resilience to agricultural drought with the alignment of the National Development Plan (NDP) of South Africa and the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger and poverty. The NDP considers small livestock producers as a strategy given the role of the livestock sector in food security. This work is original academic research carried out by the authors and part of an MSc dissertation by Vuyiseka A. Myeki [18] entitled "Factors affecting smallholder livestock farmers' agricultural drought resilience to food insecurity in the Northern Cape, South Africa". The University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
