Gavin Fraser

Economic Evaluation of Sweet Sorghum in Biofuel Production as a Multi-purpose Crop: The Case of Zambia

Increasing awareness of the environmental damage caused by the existing fossil fuel-based energy system and rising fossil fuel prices explain, in part, the growing interest in renewable energy sources. In March 2008, oil broke through the psychological ceiling of 100 US

Is Fairtrade in commercial farms justifiable? Its impact on commercial and small-scale producers in South Africa

a barrel, and later in early June 2008 rose to 140 US

Influence of institutional and technical factors on market choices of smallholder farmers in the Kat River Valley

on the way to 150 US

Exploring options in reforming South African land ownership: Opportunities for sharing land, labour and expertise

. In addition, rising issues on global warming have resulted in the need to consider alternative sources of energy. This also resulted in debates about biofuels in most developing and developed countries. Zambia is faced with an energy crisis from importation of large amounts of crude oil and the high cost of fuel and petroleum products. Sweet sorghum has been flagged as a potential biofuel feedstock in Zambia. This chapter evaluates different varieties of sweet sorghum and identifies production scenarios under which sweet sorghum can be produced in Zambia by the use of Gross Margin Analysis. It also evaluates notable trade-offs in producing sweet sorghum instead of grain sorghum. The results show that identifying high sweet sorghum yielding varieties and optimum production scenarios are important pre-requisites for the successful implementation of the use of sweet sorghum in biofuel production. The results indicate a positive relationship between the yield of sweet sorghum and the production regime.

Regulatory Incoherence and Economic Potential of Freshwater Recreational Fisheries: The Trout Triangle in South Africa

ABSTRACT Fairtrade initially was limited to improving the lives of small-scale and peasant farmers, but later on it embraced commercial farmers, which attracted criticism. While there are a number of justifications for the Fairtrade organizations decision, there are authors who feel that meaningful “fair trade” cannot be achieved with the inclusion of commercial farms. This paper investigates the impact of Fairtrade on commercial farms and small-scale farmer cooperatives in South Africa. Fairtrade on South African commercial farms embraces a number of policy concerns related to land reform, BEE and sustainable development. The results of the study show that when commercial farms are included in the Fairtrade model, communities in which these farmers live benefit from developmental projects. In addition, in some instances, farm workers gain shares in the commercial farms, and benefit from the farm owners’ knowledge and capital.

Biofuel Policies in Tanzania

In the age of trade liberalisation and globalisation, the world markets are increasingly being integrated. This implies that farmers in the developing world are ever more linked to consumers and corporations of the rich nations. Consequently, local farmers are facing increasing market competition, not only in international markets but in local markets as well. In an effort to withstand the market pressures, agricultural markets are now transforming to a vertically coordinated structure (Reardon and Barrett, 2000). In addition, both the private and the public sectors have made some adjustments in agricultural markets, in order to survive competition resulting from market changes.

Economics of meat production from springbuck in the Eastern Cape Karoo

ABSTRACT In many developing countries, land ownership remains a subject of contention. In South Africa, notwithstanding the strides that have been made to foster equitable land ownership, land reform policies have been unsuccessful in delivering land to the poor majority. Due to the nature of agriculture as a source of food production and national security, and the lack of farming skills and related competencies’ equilibrium, programmes intended to deliver land to black people have been inadequate in their reach. Whereas policy has emphasised the urgency of solving equity issues in land ownership, equally challenging has been finding the right set of programmes to achieve this without triggering a perennial land ownership squabble. After 18 years of democracy, a need remains to find a balance between continuity in food production and equitable redistribution of land in South African agriculture. In this paper, we argue that it is possible to achieve equitable and fair redistribution of land without inhibiting agricultural production, through land sharing. We show that sharing land could help fast-track the development of a farming skills and related competencies’ equilibrium between black and white farmers. The paper further demonstrates that the gains in land sharing far outweigh other programmes of land reform that have been used and suggested thus far.

How the leopard has changed its spots: past dynamics and future opportunities

Abstract: We apply John R. Commons’s negotiational psychology, specifically his principle of sovereignty, to the development of a discordant regulatory culture and its likely impact on the economic potential of recreational fishing. Using South African environmental judicial precedents and other documentation, we formulate six plausible hypotheses. We argue that regulatory incoherence, entitlement insecurity, corporate-dominated social valuation, strategic power coalitions, lack of procedural fairness, and the extent of judicial enforcement of environmental rights help explain the economic potential and isolation of the freshwater recreational fisheries sector. We find a consistent pattern of extraction and monopolization of sovereign power by the Department of Mineral Resources from propertied parties. Thus, regulatory domination is a major mechanism affecting the economic potential of recreational fisheries in the Trout Triangle. While Commons postulated that private property is a sufficient condition for participation in the determination and use of sovereign power, we argue that private/public property is only a necessary condition. The conjunctive sufficient condition is the existence of both regulatory coherence between spheres of government and property.

Water footprint assessment to inform water management and policy making in South Africa

Tanzania’s energy consumption is dominated by biomass, most of which is consumed by households. Apart from biomass, the country has extensive hydropower, coal and natural gas resources. The overwhelming dependence on biomass for basic cooking and heating needs by the majority in Tanzania, is a major cause of poverty and several other deleterious effects. As a consequence of the harmful effects of fossil fuels, biofuels are seen as a source of sustainable growth to help alleviate poverty in Tanzania. In this chapter, present policies and other framework conditions influencing the development of the biofuel sector in Tanzania are investigated. This includes the Tanzanian Energy Policy, Land Act, National Forest Policy, National Environment Policy, Agricultural Sector Development Policy, and the Tanzanian Transport Policy. The necessity for policies directly related to biofuel production is discussed. The Tanzanian government has established a Biofuels Task Force (BTF) in order to produce guidelines for the design of a set of appropriate policy initiatives. Due to the lack of formal biofuel policies, several external agencies have made recommendations on policies that the Tanzanian government should adopt. It is concluded that the policies existing in Tanzania are indirect and thus biofuel producers lack a reliable framework. Due to increasing biofuels, especially amongst small-scale farmers, the government must seek to provide these smallholders with incentives to grow their productions along with large-scale producers.

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF RESETTLEMENT FARMERS OF ZIMBABWE

Abstract The feasibility of springbuck based meat production in the Eastern Cape Karoo was analysed through a stochastic budgeting model, while openly taking cost and price risk into consideration. Monte Carlo simulation of a springbuck-based meat production enterprise was used to quantify the risks that would be faced by springbuck ranchers. Springbuck ranching has been proven a viable alternative in the production of highly nutritious and healthy meat (venison) that is in high demand in European markets and more recently, with a promising and increasing local demand as well. The results indicate that in the Eastern Cape Karoo, springbuck ranching for meat production is a viable business. As the call for more environmentally friendly rangelands utilisation economic systems intensifies, rangelands owners in the Eastern Cape Karoo have a practicable option. At the very least, an alternative to broaden their incomes with springbuckbased meat production exists.