Nick Vink

How transaction costs influence cattle marketing decisions in the Northern Communal Areas of Namibia

In this article a non-linear dynamic model is applied to determine the influence of transaction costs on the marketing decisions of cattle owners in the Northern Communal Areas of Namibia. The article tests the hypothesis that a producers choice between alternative marketing options is influenced by transaction costs. The study shows that a number of transaction cost variables (herd size, distance from auction points, information and risk) have a significant effect on the proportion sold to Meatco and thus indirectly on the choice of marketing channels.

The influence of policy on the roles of agriculture in South Africa

This article provides a framework for the analysis of the relationship between different macroeconomic, sector and commodity policies and the multiplier effects of agriculture. It starts with a listing of the macroeconomic, sector and commodity policies that have been included in the analysis. These should be considered in conjunction with the likely roles of agriculture along each of the dimensions of the social, poverty and cultural roles of agriculture. These policies and roles should be conceptualised as the vertical and horizontal axes respectively of a ‘policy role’ matrix. The ‘cells’ of this matrix – the policy role interactions – are discussed with respect to the immediate macroeconomic, agricultural, economic, institutional and social impact of the policy change on the agricultural sector at farm, regional, national and multinational levels, and thereafter on the role of agriculture in terms of each of the dimensions identified above.

Good for whom? Supermarkets and small farmers in South Africa - a critical review of current approaches to increasing access to modern markets

ABSTRACT Small-scale agriculture is one of the few tools available to support improved rural livelihoods on a significant scale in South Africa. Access to output markets is a key factor in generating higher incomes. The rise of modern markets (supermarkets in particular) is generally viewed as positive for the rural poor, although most commentators accede that there are challenges to be overcome in obtaining access to such markets. These challenges are generally perceived as supply-side issues: That is, the “fault” for market exclusion lies largely with small producers – their production methods, their business organisation and their location – rather than with these markets themselves. This study asserts that much of the research that has been undertaken in this area is in fact incomplete, because it has excluded two key issues: The likely impact of the dominant supermarket business model on small farmers; and the actual position of small farmers in those countries with high levels of supermarket concentration. A closer examination of the supermarket model suggests it is inherently hostile towards smaller producers. The South African food retail market structure resembles that of industrialised countries rather than developing countries. Therefore, we should expect that the position of South African small farmers vis-à-vis supermarkets is similar to that of small farmers in industrialised countries, who are increasingly excluded from these value chains.

Trust and supply chain relationships: A South African case study

Modern competitiveness theory emphasises the role of strategic alliances between different actors in the supply chain. However, in order to be successful, these alliances have to be trust-based, where trust refers to institution-based, characteristic-based and process-based relationships. In this paper, as case study of a skategic relationship between an industrial conglomerate and a group of resource-poor irrigation farmers in South Africa is described in order to explore the nature of these various trust-based relationships.

Food security and African agriculture

Food security has become an important indicator of progress in agricultural development, but it is a concept that is hard to measure and that is context-specific. In this article an attempt is made to understand the four main pillars of food security — namely food availability, access to food, the utilisation of food and stability — in the context of African agriculture. The analysis leads to the conclusion that at least four aspects of the concept need specific attention in the African context: (1) the open-ended nature of the definition of food security; (2) the security aspects of the definition; (3) the effect of instability; and (4) the ‘missing middle’ that lies between the production of farm commodities and the consumption of food products. Future research should concentrate on these aspects in order to better address the challenge of food security in Africa.

Climate change and the future of South Africa's wine industry

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to attempt to synthesise the lessons from at least four different ways of looking at the South Africa wine industry: economics, climatology, viticulture, and the sociology of work.Design/methodology/approach – The economic performance of South Africas wine industry since democratisation in the early 1990s is reviewed, as is the effect of climate change on the industry. This is followed by an assessment of possible strategies for building international competitiveness whilst simultaneously coping with the effects of climate change.Findings – While industry systems should allow the marketing of speciality wines (e.g. from a single vineyard, from a single estate), this is not a viable strategy for most wine producers. Furthermore, climate change will lead to volatility in the characteristics that identify different terroirs.Practical implications – Industry strategies should rather focus on the benefits of diversity, but with a range of adaptations that will also res...

Improving food security in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa: too little, too slow.

Food insecurity is still remarkably high in the poorest areas of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Many rural households struggle to have sufficient access to the food they need or prefer. This article explores the extent of food access insecurity and assesses the perceived impact on food security of an Empowerment for Food Security Programme that was launched in the Province in 2007. One of the programme aims was to improve agricultural practices in community gardens, home gardens and broiler production. Data were collected among 390 beneficiary households involved in these agricultural projects in 2010. Findings confirmed that experience-based food insecurity levels were still high, despite the agricultural support programme and the government income transfers. Nevertheless, respondents attribute an improved dietary diversity and better access to resources to the programme.

Policy successes and policy failures in agriculture and land reform in South Africa: The 1990s

There have been a number of recent reviews of contemporary South African agricultural policy that have considered the issues from different perspectives. Van Zyl, Vink, Kirsten & Poonyth in addressing the period of the 1990s, summarise the main policy changes that took place (land reform, institutional restructuring in the public sector, and marketing, water, trade and labour market policies).

THE COMPETITIVENESS OF WESTERN CAPE WHEAT PRODUCTION: AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON

This paper reports the results of an international comparison of the cost of producing wheat in 8 Western Cape, 3 Free State and 7 foreign producing areas. Results show that South African yields are low compared to foreign countries whose production costs are as high as or higher than those in South Africa, while the net margins for South African producers are less than a third of those for countries that have the same or lower yields as South Africa. If the wheat industry in the Western Cape is to survive international competition, it will have to create its international competitiveness.

Comparative advantage of organic wheat production in the Western Cape

Abstract In a context in which the framework of agricultural policy and business is changing radically the objective of the government and farmers should be to support the development of systems that look likely to be winners in the future. As a result this paper uses a Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) to determine whether wheat production would have a comparative advantage if produced under organic practices. The paper starts by analysing the comparative advantage of wheat under conventional4 practices, and later contrasts conventional with organic practices. The results of the analyses mainly indicate a comparative advantage for wheat grown under organic practices especially when the social cost benefit ratio (SCB) is incorporated into the analyses. This is because the domestic resource cost (DRC) criterion that is used by the PAM is confirmed to understate the social profitability of systems that use domestic factors intensively like organic wheat systems and favours systems that use less of these factors like conventional systems. The results also show the existence of distortions in the market even if wheat were to be produced under organic practises, although these are shown to be less than for wheat produced under conventional practices.