Smallholder irrigation farming is transformative to poor households as they improve livelihoods and alleviate poverty but little has been done to quantify their profitability. The present study assessed the profitability of smallholder irrigated crop farmers in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and ascertained their determinants. A multi-stratified technique was employed to select 120 smallholder irrigated crop farmers. Data were analysed using gross margin and multiple regression models. Results showed that crop production is profitable. Farm experience, years spent in school, access to credit, distance to markets, and tractor use were found to have a bearing on the profitability of the irrigated crop farmers. Based on the results, crop farming is identified as crucial for jobs and poverty reduction.
Background Farm productivity on smallholder family-owned crop farms remains low despite several interventions to transform agriculture especially in developing countries. Farmers in rural areas face serious constraints that impede their productive capacities for the principal dietary staple, notably maize. Smallholder farmers have access to unprofitable markets that in turn make their enterprises less profitable. Efforts to commercialise smallholder maize production have not yielded desired results. This study, therefore, estimates profit efficiency and its determinants in the smallholder cropping systems in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Methodology A random sample of 158 smallholder maize farmers was selected. A normalised translog profit function was then fitted by means of a one-step estimation of technical efficiency and its determinants using the STATA software. Results The results indicate that cost of fertiliser and area under cultivation for maize were the positive drivers of profitability. Complementarities among resources were very important determinants of profit. Conclusion The study concludes that family-owned farms have a positive effect on crop production. Farm profits rise with cultivated area in maize farms. Therefore, the study recommends that policy favouring smallholder commercialisation would improve farm profits.
Improving profit efficiency in vegetable farming, especially for Spinach, is vital in enhancing income, livelihoods, and nutrition security and reducing the poverty of smallholder farmers, particularly in developing countries like South Africa. Despite the country’s potential, spinach production faces major challenges, including unreliable markets, low adoption of modern production systems, and production inefficiencies that affect farm returns. This has been attributed to a lack of adequate and reliable information to guide producers on measures for improving productivity through cost effective production systems and efficient market systems, eventually leading to profit inefficiency. Therefore, this study sought to assess the profit efficiency of smallholder spinach producers under irrigated agriculture in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The study made use of multi-stratified sampling procedures to select 150 spinach producers under irrigation. The stochastic profit frontier function was applied to assess the profit efficiency of smallholder spinach farmers. The results indicated that most farmers operated in farm sizes of 3 ha with an average age of 48 years. The estimates of the stochastic profit frontier function showed that farm size, cost of fertilizer, seed, and pesticides increased profit while labour used decreased profit. Findings indicated a 10% profit loss due to a mixture of technical and allocative inefficiency in the production of spinach, while farmers were able to attain an average profit inefficiency of 90%. Moreover, findings revealed numerous factors that positively affected the profit efficiency of spinach farmers, including socioeconomic, institutional, and cultural. The study findings imply that profit efficiency can increase significantly through the use of high-quality fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides. The allocative efficiency results indicate that improvement in access to extension services, farmers’ level of education, and farm experience can result in the increased allocative efficiency of spinach farmers in the study site. The study further suggests that smallholder farmers must adopt innovative technology to enhance their agricultural productivity, and this is likely to improve household income and nutrition security. Thus, the study recommends that policymakers and government must invest in farmers’ education through effective extension delivery programs and the provision of credit to help farmers increase their profit efficiency.
Cabbage is one of the most cultivated vegetable crops that are used as a staple crop because of its affordability and nutritional value. Improving profit efficiency in vegetable farming is important for both economic, livelihood, and to certain extent - food security. The crop plays a significant role in reducing the poverty levels of the previously disadvantaged in different parts of South Africa. We argue that cabbage is mostly grown by smallholder farmers whose technical efficiency is not well known. It is for this reason that we take measures towards developing empirical evidence on technical efficiency to enhance its production and advancement. The study estimated technical efficiency and factors of technical inefficiency among smallholder irrigation producers of cabbage. A total of 150 growers were selected from a list of vegetable farmers from Eastern Cape Municipalities using a multi-stage sampling. A stochastic production frontier model was employed while correcting for heteroscedasticity in stochastic and inefficiency error terms. Gross margin was used to determine the profitability of smallholder cabbage farming. The study findings revealed that farming is practiced by the elderly who mainly had primary education. There were increasing returns from cabbage farming and farmer average technical efficiency of about 78%. This implies 21.16% inefficiency level, indicating that there are reserves available to raise revenues through refining practical and allocative competencies of farmers. Farm size (Area), seed and capital were production-increasing variables while fertilizer and labour used were reducing farm returns of cabbage production. Sources of farmer technical inefficiency were age, farm experience, years spent in school, access to extension services, household size and transportation to markets. The provision of formal skills development training and resources for farmers could improve the technical and managerial capacities of farmers.
Agriculture is the foremost locomotive of the economic growth for Sub-Saharan African countries, especially South Africa. Subsistence agriculture is one of the imperative segments in the South African economy and it remains a substantial sector for livelihood generation. Agricultural activities have an ability to provide nutrition, economic, social status and reduce rural poverty. However, subsistence farming has experience significant declined over the past 10 years due to climate change, scarcity of resources, lack of farming equipment and lack of extension services. Therefore, this paper seeks to examine factors affecting subsistence farming in rural homesteads of Nyandeni Local Municipality. Purposively, the data was collected from 120 households. To examine the factors affecting subsistence production, multiple regression was run. Study results reveal that the majority of the farming households are male-headed with an average age of 60 years with a household size of 6 people in the households. The study reveals that age, gender, and employment have an adverse influence subsistence farming production while education, extension services, household size, farming experience, and income have a positive relationship with subsistence farming. Thus, the study recommends government empowerment and training services that will increase the number of women and youth participating in farming. Further to that, government must promote sustainable food production by ensuring collaboration of all stakeholders in government, private sector and NGOs or CBOs. Key words: Agricultural productivity, Subsistence farming, Poverty.
This study assesses the determinants of adoption drivers of improved open-pollinated (OPVs) maize varieties by smallholder farmers in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Cross-sectional data of multi-stage random sampling was used to randomly select 150 smallholder farmers in the province. Data collection was conducted through a well-structured questionnaire administered to 150 smallholder farmers. Descriptive statistics and a logistic regression model were used for the analyses. The inferential results reveal that the majority of farmers in the study area were females (70%) with an average age of 45 years and had six people in the households. Smallholder maize farmers spent an average of 10 years in school. The results show that smallholder maize farmers had a farm size of 3 ha and a household income of R 3565.00, which contributes highly to household and farm operations. Farmers had access to extension services and were members of farm organizations. The results show that hybrid is the most used maize variety rather than OPVs. The main reason, among other things, for the poor use and adoption of OPVs is the lack of knowledge about the seeds. The results drawn from the estimations show that socio-economic and institutional factors influenced the adoption of OPVs by farmers in the study area. Therefore, the study recommends strengthening the existing extension services to highlight the benefits of OPVs through training and farmers’ information days.
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