J. A. Groenewald

Factors enhancing market participation by small-scale cotton farmers

Abstract This paper uses data collected from 177 small-scale farming households in Mpumalanga in an effort to identify factors that significantly influence the degree of commercialisation or market participation. A logistic regression model was applied within the transaction costs framework. Results support the hypothesis that transactions costs rank among the main determinants of commercialisation. The following variables were statistically significant: age, ability to speak/understand English, region, ownership of transport, access to market information, distance to market, dependency ratio, trust, land size and ownership of livestock. Increases in the latter four have negative effects on commercialisation. The negative relationship between land size and commercialisation probably indicates that increased market participation is also afunction of input (land) productivity.

Unlocking markets to smallholders : lessons from South Africa

This book assesses the institutional, technical and market constraints as well as opportunities for smallholders, notably, emerging farmers in disadvantaged areas such as the former homelands of South Africa. Emerging farmers are previously disadvantaged black people who started or will start their business with the support of special government programs. Public support programs have been developed as part of the Black Economic Empowerment strategy of the South African government. These programs aim to improve the performance of emerging farmers. This requires, first and foremost, upgrading the emerging farmers skills by providing access to knowledge about agricultural and entrepreneurial practices. To become or to remain good farmers they also need access to suitable agricultural land and sufficient water for irrigation and for feeding their cattle. Finally, for emerging farmers to be engaged in viable farming operations, various factors need to be in place such as marketing and service institutions to give credit for agricultural inputs and investments; input markets for farm machinery, farm implements, fertilizers and quality seeds; and accessible output markets for their end products. This book develops a policy framework and potential institutional responses to unlock the relevant markets for smallholders

Smallholders and livestock markets

Livestock marketing by smallholders in South Africa has to be seen against a background in which both history and tradition play important roles; these influences have had big influence on the keeping, utilisation and marketing of livestock by particularly black farmers, who constitute by far the larger proportion of smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS NEEDS OF AGRIBUSINESS IN SOUTH AFRICA

A recent mail survey on 55 agribusinesses indicated a significant need for current statistics concerning field crops, horticultural and livestock products. Some Statistics are needed more frequently than others. Basic statistics needs involve mostly institutions and infrastructure, but some on farm units and some economic statistics are also needed. Statistics are used for business decisions. A high level of reliability is desired.

Analysis of the socio-economic factors that contribute to land and agrarian reform which initiated and supported small, micro, medium farming enterprises (SMMES) in South Africa

South Africa is amongst the developing countries with high prevalence of socio-economic challenges. These challenges include high levels of joblessness, poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among rural and peri-urban poor people. Since 1994, the South African government has had a goal that the farming sector should play an important role in food security, job creation and wealth creation. This study investigated the potential of farming small, micro, medium enterprise (SMMEs) to contribute to the resolve of socio-economic problems. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used in this study, with the former relying on participatory forums, where the data was taken with the aid of video recordings, whilst the later methodology used semi-structured questionnaire. The quantitative data obtained and used in this study were gathered from year 2006 to 2007. This data was from a sample size of 1873 (20% of the registered farming SMMEs in all nine provinces of South Africa) farming SMMEs collected by extension officers as the numerators. It appears that the majority of the SMMEs thus formed in agricultural sector lack the capacity to be sustainable and hence, there is a need to innovate and explore mechanisms that can transform micro and small enterprises to medium enterprises in order to improve their probability of contributing to resolve the socio-economic challenges.

THE NEED FOR AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA / DIE BEHOEFTE AAN LANDBOU-INLIGTING IN DIE NUWE SUID-AFRIKA

The necessary data on agriculture must be available for public and private decision-makers in the agricultural sector to use agricultural information for decision-making, solve problems or increase their knowledge. As a result of the deregulation of the agricultural marketing sector in South Africa, the supply of these data decreased. Also, the needs for data on agriculture of the various decision-makers, i.e. the policy-makers, researchers, agricultural service industries as well as the farmers and extension officers, changed. Since information systems are based on the needs of the decision-makers, the need for data on agriculture should be determined before either existing methodologies are improved or new methodologies are introduced to increase the supply of data on agriculture in South Africa.

Economics of climate change adaptation: a case study of Ceres – South Africa

Climate change and its impact on already scarce water resources are important issues being publicly debated in the world today. Water resources are of more concern because changes in the water supply will affect the water availability for household use, agricultural practices, and for the vast industrial water demand. With the view of helping famers to adapt to climate change, the Ceres Dynamic Integrated Model was developed to simulate the impacts and evaluate different adaptation strategies thereof. The results show that a substantial change can be expected in the profile of the farming community. However, with adaptation the welfare of the farmers can be improved. Depending on the availability of funds to make farm dams available for farmers, access to farm dam capacity and winter water allocations as well as increasing water use efficiency are potential adaptation options for the farmers. Improved water management practices that increase the productivity of irrigation water use may provide a significant adaptation potential under future climate. Therefore, farmers must be equipped with a collection of management or adaptation tools to overcome slight climatic differences.

Evaluation of the entrepreneurial success factors of small, micro and medium farming enterprises (SMMEs) in the peri-urban poor communities of George municipality, Western Cape Province, RSA

The aim of the study was to determine the entrepreneurship capacity of farming enterprises focussed small business in poor communities of George Municipality. The study was conducted in four (n=4) townships around George metropolitan areas. Only 10% the sample population was considered during quantitative data collection processes. The quantitative data collected was randomly selected whilst the qualitative data collection were collected from focus sessions. The population was sampled in a way that provides the required precision, representativeness, reliability and repeatability. To achieve these, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed with former being important during the interpretation of the results and the later being important in quantifying the variables outcomes. The descriptive, factorial and inferential data analyses were performed. In all three analyses conducted, it appears that innovation and risk taking were the most crucial key success factors in these types of businesses. The study recommends that for these enterprises to be viable, the capacity building programs aimed at consolidating and developing entrepreneurial capacity should consider innovation, risk taking, financial and infrastructural capacities as their first priority in establishing their enterprises. Therefore, it is important that incubating organizations provide priority support services for those key success factors found to be crucial in order to ensure the required sustainability.

Unlocking markets to smallholder farmers: the potential role of contracting

In every ‘underdeveloped’ country I know of, marketing is the most underdeveloped or least developed part of the economy….[Marketing] would make the producers capable of providing marketable products by providing them with standards, with quality demands and with specifications for their product. It would make the product capable of being brought to markets instead of perishing on the way (Drucker, 1958).