Is agricultural extension positioned to promote agripreneurship in South Africa?

Stevens, Joseph Benjamin

doi:10.17159/2413-3221/2017/v45n1a437

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…However, changes in extension and development models broadened the scope of extension practice. Different institutions incorporated many other objectives to extension practice, such as creation and strengthening of farmer organisations (Landini, 2016a), support to commercialisation of produce (Swanson & Rajalahti, 2010), management and protection of natural resources (Vanclay, 2004), and development of farmers' entrepreneurship capacity (Stevens, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extension Officers' Perceptions Of Extension And Innovation In South Africa

Davis¹,

Landini²,

Niekerk³

et al. 2019

S Afr. Jnl. Agric. Ext.

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Extension is evolving, and extension workers' roles and attitudes are changing with global realities. The purpose of this study was to examine South African extension officers' perceptions of their job, views on the objectives of extension, and conception of agriculture. A questionnaire was developed consisting of general demographic and Likert-scale questions regarding perceptions of extension. The survey was emailed to all South African based members of the South African Society for Agricultural Extension (SASAE). The study found that most extensionists considered extension as a professional or technical practice to improve farmer practices followed by those who consider it as "helping farmers" to improve their wellbeing. The most preferred methods and the area of actual practice were first group and second individual approaches. According to the respondents, productive modernisation aimed at productivity and profitability was the highest extension objective, followed by increasing farmers' knowledge through training. In addition, results provide evidence that extension institutions tend to support conventional agriculture, while extension workers are more concerned with potential negative impacts. Finally, the Likert-scale responses show that while much South African extension work is based on dialogue and horizontal coordination using a participatory approach, transfer of technology still exists, and farmers are blamed for their problems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extension Officers' Perceptions Of Extension And Innovation In South Africa

Davis¹,

Landini²,

Niekerk³

et al. 2019

S Afr. Jnl. Agric. Ext.

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show abstract

“…There is therefore a need for close ties between skills and knowledge organisations, policymakers, extension services, and smallholder farmers to ensure that agriculture programmes adjust to changing demands for new knowledge, skills, modernisation and technologies. Worse still, the existing extension education in South Africa follows the traditional approach with a focus on production-related knowledge and skills, technology transfer and persuasion for behavioural change to enable the adoption and implementation of new technology (Stevens, 2017). This limit approaches focusing on the co-generation of knowledge and skills, in ways that would enable the co-ownership of knowledge-producing processes with smallholders.…”

Section: The Lack Of Contextualized Forestry Curriculums and Pedagogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systemic challenges hindering the flow of sustainable forestry knowledge among smallholder farmers in South Africa

Dandira¹

2023

Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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South African democratic governments instituted several policies aimed at developing the capabilities of smallholder foresters to ensure economic inclusion and rural development. Skills development to build smallholder capabilities was deemed necessary to improve productivity, food security and conserve forestry resources. However, systemic blockages within the South African skills system hinder skills development, knowledge and technological flows to smallholders. This study assessed the systemic blockages hindering forestry skills formation and knowledge flows in the South African provinces of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. In-depth interviews were conducted with policy practitioners, skills researchers, forestry organisations, and smallholder foresters. The interviews covered issues about alignment in government departments, extension curricula, linkages and interactions between skills institutions, extension officers and smallholders and other economic agents. Thematic analysis established that systemic blockages within the South African skills systems emanate from the lack of policy implementation resulting from the misalignment in government departments. Weak linkages and interactions between policymakers, researchers, extension officers and smallholders and traditional institutions also limit interactions, sharing and co-generation of skills and knowledge for application by smallholders. This paper recommends monitoring mechanisms to ensure interactive and coordinated implementation of forestry and innovation policies for knowledge to flow to smallholders.

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“…Record keeping is important for farm business assessment and planning and these records are required by banks in cases of application for credit. The issue of formalising farm business and instilling entrepreneurship was argued by Stevens (2017), where it was acknowledged that there is a need for training in handling administration of the farm business which requires some degree of literacy.…”

Section: Envisaged Role Of Agricultural Extension In Developing Emergmentioning

confidence: 99%

Profiling Potential Land Redistribution Beneficiaries In South Africa: Implications For Agricultural Extension And Policy Design

Zantsi

2019

S Afr. Jnl. Agric. Ext.

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There is a general agreement that land reform has fallen short in achieving its intended objectives. One of the most commonly cited reasons for the slow progress in the land redistribution programme is lack of clear criteria in beneficiary selection. The State Land Lease and Disposal Policy, which is one of the current land redistribution policies, has identified commercial-oriented smallholders in the communal land as one of the land redistribution beneficiaries. However, there is little detailed empirical evidence on their constituents. Such information is crucial for policy-makers including the agricultural extension personnel, as this will enhance effective policy design and appropriate design of extension advisory service which will contribute to the success of land redistribution. The objective of this article is to fill this gap by profiling commercial-oriented small-scale farmers in three provinces that have the highest number of smallholders in South Africa. A survey of 833 farmers from these three provinces was conducted. Descriptive statistics and Binary Logistic Regression were used to analyse the data with the use of STATA software. The results show that a potential emerging farmer is a 55 years old male with primary education. Furthermore, 57% of the farmers are willing to relocate to commercial farms if there is government support and require an average farm of 152 hectares where they want to plant maize. The article concludes with some recommendations and implications for agricultural extension.

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Is agricultural extension positioned to promote agripreneurship in South Africa?

Abstract: This paper highlights the establishment of development organisations on the

Cited by 10 publications

References 2 publications

Extension Officers' Perceptions Of Extension And Innovation In South Africa

Extension Officers' Perceptions Of Extension And Innovation In South Africa

Systemic challenges hindering the flow of sustainable forestry knowledge among smallholder farmers in South Africa

Profiling Potential Land Redistribution Beneficiaries In South Africa: Implications For Agricultural Extension And Policy Design

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