Sikhulumile Sinyolo

Water security and rural household food security: empirical evidence from the Mzinyathi district in South Africa

This paper aimed to investigate the determinants of water security in an irrigation scheme, and how this water security level subsequently affects the farmer’s household food security level. Water security refers to access by the irrigating households to sufficient and reliable water to meet the agricultural needs and their ability to assert the water rights against other parties. A random sample of 185 irrigating households was interviewed in Tugela Ferry Irrigation Scheme in Mzinyathi District, South Africa. Data were analysed using principal component analysis and ordinary least squares. The empirical results indicated that factors such as farmer’s age, off-farm income, farmer association membership, use of pumps, location on the upper-end of the canal and training increase household water security. Conversely, factors such as occurrence of conflicts and location at the tail-end of the canal were found to decrease household water security. This study highlights the importance of strengthening farmer organisational capacity and local institutions for enhancing the water security status of farmers in smallholder irrigation schemes. The results also indicated that perceived water security has a positive impact on household food consumption per adult equivalent. Therefore, for better impact on household food security, the study recommends that priority should be placed in ensuring household water security, not just investing in the physical irrigation scheme and irrigation participation. The human and social dimensions need to receive priority. Training farmers in collective water governance and water conservation techniques to improve water-use efficiency as well as introducing motorised pumps would take irrigators a long way in enhancing their water security.

The Impact of Entrepreneurial Competencies on Household Food Security Among Smallholder Farmers in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of entrepreneurial competencies on food security among rural farming households in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (SA). A total of 513 rural households were randomly selected, and the descriptive results indicated that 51% of these households were food insecure, and they were somewhat negative about their entrepreneurial competencies. The estimated results indicated that entrepreneurship had a positive impact on food security. The study findings suggest that stimulating entrepreneurship through developing entrepreneurial competencies among the farming households is important for improved food security among rural households in SA.

The impact of social grants on the propensity and level of use of inorganic fertiliser among smallholders in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

ABSTRACT This article assesses the extent to which social grants relieve liquidity constraints and improve inorganic fertiliser use among South African smallholders. A total of 984 farming households were randomly selected from four districts of KwaZulu-Natal, and data were analysed using the double-hurdle model. The econometric results indicated that use of social grants had a positive impact on the level of fertiliser use, while increasing dependency on social grants had no significant negative impact. The positive influence of social grants on the amount of inorganic fertiliser used suggests that these grants play a significant role in alleviating the liquidity constraints faced by poor farmers. This result is consistent with the presence of credit constraints that limit poor households’ ability to invest in modern farming technologies. To increase technology adoption among the poor, the study recommends that policymakers should address imperfections in the rural credit markets, increase smallholders’ assets in order to increase their risk-bearing capacity and improve the expected profitability of using inorganic fertiliser.

Collective action and rural poverty reduction: Empirical evidence from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

ABSTRACT Organising smallholder farmers into groups has become an important and preferred mechanism through which the South African government and other rural development agencies seek to address rural poverty and household food insecurity. This study investigates whether collective action through farmer groups has improved incomes among rural farming households in South Africa. The propensity score matching (PSM) method and the treatment effect approach were used to analyse a sample of 984 rural households from four districts in KwaZulu-Natal. The PSM results indicated that participation in farmer groups significantly and positively influenced household incomes. Group membership increased the average household incomes per adult equivalent by about R3000. However, the Rosenbaum bounds tests indicated that the impact estimates obtained using the PSM approach were not robust to hidden bias. The treatment effect regression model, which controls for hidden bias, was estimated, and the results supported those of PSM. The results also indicated that groups benefit more those who are educated and are males, suggesting a bias against the females and those less educated. The results suggest that organising smallholder farmers into groups can play a positive role in rural poverty reduction. For greater impact, policy makers should promote group formation and participation among smallholder farmers as well as introduce adult literacy classes to improve education levels.

The impact of social grant-dependency on agricultural entrepreneurship among rural households in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Developing entrepreneurship is key to achieving the rural poverty reduction goals in South Africa. The concern that social grants, which benefit millions of the poor, may inhibit the growth of entrepreneurship among rural households should be empirically investigated. This study assess the extent to which dependency on social grants influences the development of agricultural entrepreneurship among rural farming households. The study adopts the competency approach in understanding agricultural entrepreneurship, as this approach is readily applicable to firms that are smaller in size and dominated by the entrepreneur such as smallholder farming units. A total of 513 rural farming households were randomly selected in three purposively chosen districts of KwaZulu-Natal. The data were analyzed using the factor score regression method, which was estimated in two steps. The first step involved generating the agricultural entrepreneurship index using principal component analysis, while the second step involved using the computed agricultural entrepreneurship index as a dependent variable in a linear regression. The empirical results indicated that dependency on social grants, in line with the disincentive hypothesis, was negatively associated with agricultural entrepreneurship. This suggests that social grants are spilling-over to unintended groups, creating disincentive effects which inhibit entrepreneurial development among the rural farming households. The study results further indicated that the households risk-bearing ability through asset endowment (land size, livestock size), access to government support services (extension, credit and training), and institutional and/or infrastructural support (tenure security, market access and irrigation access) had positive effects on agricultural entrepreneurship. The disincentives effects of social grants on entrepreneurship have negative implications on the governments drive to increase production and commercialization levels of smallholder farmers. Given that the entrepreneurial competencies can be learned and changed, the study identified a number of policy variables to enhance agricultural entrepreneurship. In particular, the study recommends that policy-makers should prioritize increasing the risk-bearing abilities of households as well as access to government support services to increase agricultural entrepreneurship.