By Fidelis Zvomuya
SUID BOKKEVELD, South Africa (AlertNet) Â? The isolated farmers of this poor mountainous enclave in northwest South Africa have long struggled to survive on small stock farming, social grants and growing rooibos, a South African native tea.
Rooibos' growing popularity in Europe and the United States has in recent years brought better times in Suid Bokkeveld, as export markets boom. But climate change now threatens the ecologically fragile region's rooibos - and its success.
Farmers, however, are fighting back and trying to improve their knowledge of weather to build effective adaptation strategies to protect their business.
"We have realised that as global warming continues, it is us poor communities that are hit first, and hit hardest," said Hendrik Hesselman, chair of the Heiveld Cooperative, the local rooibos growers organization.
Rooibos tea, rich in anti-oxidants but caffeine free, has been known in South Africa for centuries. In the past decade, it has become popular with health-conscious consumers around the globe, leading to growing production and sales.
That has given an economic boost to the farmers of the arid region at the far northwest end of South Africa's unique Cape Floristic region, near the Cedarberg mountains.
Vulnerable to drought and temperature extremes, the region has fragile soils degraded by overgrazing in areas. One single-track gravel road, which traverses four mountain passes, connects isolated farmers in the area.
Rooibos, with its soft, green, needle-like leaves, has begun to change life in the region. Earlier this decade, the Heiveld cooperative won organic certification from the EU and other organizations, which allowed it to expand exports into the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.
Heiveld Cooperative farmers, who manage plots averaging 5 hectares, now produce 80 tonnes of tea a year, and expect to bring in $400,000 in sales this year, up from 36 tonnes and $200,000 in sales in 2005-2006, Hesselman said.
"Earnings per kilo have doubled since 2000," he said, and the cooperative has invested $13,000 in a tea processing facility, as well as $16,000 in road upgrades and school construction in the area.
CLIMATE SHIFT THREATENS ECONOMIC GAINS
But climate change now threatens those gains. Between 2003 and 2006, increasing heat and drought slashed the community's rooibos harvests, with temperatures in 2003 spiking as high as 38 degrees Celsius.
"The Kalahari desert was encroaching on our land from the north. Life was hard for us, no water. Drought slowed the nearby spring to a muddy trickle," Hesselman remembers.
Since 1960, South Africa has seen an average temperature rise of about 0.5 degrees Celsius, while the water temperature along the coast is up by 0.25 degrees Celsius in that same period, said Stephanie Midgley, a Stellenbosch University horticulturist.
That "has begun to threaten our market success," Hesselman said. "In the past few years, we have been experiencing severe impacts from drought and higher temperatures. This we felt most acutely in drier parts where we farm."
Both production and incomes have fallen short of expected gains as rooibos plots suffer, he said.
But the farmers are fighting back. Hesselman and his 46 cooperative members are now working to learn and share methods of adapting to climate change.
They are working to stabilize their soil with new conservation practices and planting the most drought-resistant rooibos strains in new plots with the help of Indigo, a South African rural development organization, the International Development Research Centre and the UK Department for International Development.
They hope the project will serve as a model for other farming communities threatened by climate change.
The cooperative, formed in 2001 to try to help local farmers benefit from the international rooibos boom, now considers battling climate change a key priority, Hesselman said.
"Temperatures have already risen and there are strong indications that the climate will change in other ways," said Bettina Koelle, Indigo's director.
One way of dealing with climate problems has been to study local micro-climates, which vary widely from farm to farm.
"Climate Diaries" have been introduced, in which farmers record rainfall, weekly minimum and maximum temperatures, other observations and their farming activities.
The information is shared in community workshops and compared to government seasonal forecasts. The two sets of data can then be fed into local adaptation strategies.
Fidelis Zvomuya, based in Pretoria, South Africa, is a writer specializing in environmental reporting.
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