V. M. Mmbengwa

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.

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.