Land reform programmes could be afected by changing climatic conditions, which could afect smallholder farmers and rain-fed agricultural production. Benecfiiaries of the land reform programme could be frustrated by erratic rains and unpredictable weather conditions. Predictions show that climate change will decrease agricultural production substantially in Africa and this could mostly afect small-scale farmers and new farmers with limited farming capital. This theoretical paper focuses on indigenous knowledge systems that could be utilised by new farmers to mitigate the efects of climate change in South Africa. Indigenous knowledge systems are posited as being capable of reducing the efects of climate change in situations such as severe storms, flooding and droughts. The new farmers could embrace indigenous knowledge systems in crop planting, crop cultivation, harvesting, food processing, crop storage, and weather prediction strategi