Drivers of cattle commercialization in rural South Africa: A combined test of transaction cost and store-of-wealth hypotheses

Farmers’ choice of cattle marketing channels under transaction cost in rural South Africa: a multinomial logit model

“…Research shows that the limited success of rural development policies is owed to supply-side challenges such as high transaction costs, high risk associated with new products, poor infrastructure, high price variability and weak bargaining power of small-scale producers (Delgado 1999;Ortmann and King 2010;Obi et al 2012). Empirical research in the livestock subsector contends that transaction costs cause smallholder farmers to self-select out of livestock markets, and this challenge is compounded by the incidence of non-commercial motives among ranchers (Groenewald and Jooste 2012;Ndoro and Hitayezu 2014;Ndoro et al 2013.…”

Potential for Sustainable Mountain Farming: Challenges and Prospects for Sustainable Smallholder Farming in the Maloti–Drakensberg Mountains

“…Beef cattle and dairy production are important to their livelihoods, whereas meat production from monogastric animals is less favored in the region (Elleboudt 2012). In southern Africa, communal livestock serve various purposes other than food; for example, draft power for plows and wagons, cultural value (such as marriage payments and in rituals), and a more stable investment than volatile national currencies (Ndoro and Hitayezu 2014).…”