Agricultural co-operative societies and challenges of sustainability: The case of vegetable cooperative societies in King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality, Eastern Cape Province
- Sohuma, Anathi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6260-6428
- Authors: Sohuma, Anathi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6260-6428
- Date: 2020-06
- Subjects: Agriculture, Cooperative , Sustainable development
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/21422 , vital:48601
- Description: The government has initiated various support programmes to assist agricultural co-operative societies to remain viable; however, many cooperatives continue to flounder while some have collapsed. This dissertation assesses the challenges of sustainability facing agricultural co-operative societies gushing vegetable co-operative societies in King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality, Eastern Cape Province as a point of departure. The study used the corporate sustainability theory to investigate the extent to which co-operative societies are able to operate sustainably. The data for this study were collected through document reviews and non-scheduled structured interviews which were conducted through a questionnaire. The board of directors were sampled purposively. The research adopted stratified sampling to select co-operative members that participated in the study. This research made use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 software to analyse data. The outcomes provide an understanding of the sustainability challenges that face vegetable co-operative societies. The results show that most of the co-operative societies rely on members for daily farm management. With regards to management, co-operative societies reveal that they keep sales, production and meeting record books. Furthermore, most co-operatives specified that they received training for financial and production record-keeping. It was found that some cooperatives have had training only once since their establishment. However, fewer co-operatives reported that keeping records is still challenging for them due to lack of training and little profit made from sales. The findings suggest that co-operative societies can function well and become sustainable when there is good management and cooperation amongst members. Based on the findings of this research, it is recommended that the government and co-operative stakeholders should play a greater part in ensuring co-operative societies are developed and managed in a way that will make them sustainable without relying solely on government support. For example, the government and stakeholders can establish and enforce policies that encourage co-operatives to invest in member capability programmes that would equip farmers understanding, adoption and use of co-operative values and principles. This would help in reducing challenges that occur within co-operatives and promote cohesion and commitment within co-operatives. The role of extension services towards the sustainability of the co-operatives is crucial. The majority of the co-operatives indicated that there is some level of interaction between the co-operatives and extension personnel albeit, there is a need to improve the frequency of extension visits, training and follow-up appointments. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2020
- Full Text:
- Authors: Sohuma, Anathi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6260-6428
- Date: 2020-06
- Subjects: Agriculture, Cooperative , Sustainable development
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/21422 , vital:48601
- Description: The government has initiated various support programmes to assist agricultural co-operative societies to remain viable; however, many cooperatives continue to flounder while some have collapsed. This dissertation assesses the challenges of sustainability facing agricultural co-operative societies gushing vegetable co-operative societies in King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality, Eastern Cape Province as a point of departure. The study used the corporate sustainability theory to investigate the extent to which co-operative societies are able to operate sustainably. The data for this study were collected through document reviews and non-scheduled structured interviews which were conducted through a questionnaire. The board of directors were sampled purposively. The research adopted stratified sampling to select co-operative members that participated in the study. This research made use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 software to analyse data. The outcomes provide an understanding of the sustainability challenges that face vegetable co-operative societies. The results show that most of the co-operative societies rely on members for daily farm management. With regards to management, co-operative societies reveal that they keep sales, production and meeting record books. Furthermore, most co-operatives specified that they received training for financial and production record-keeping. It was found that some cooperatives have had training only once since their establishment. However, fewer co-operatives reported that keeping records is still challenging for them due to lack of training and little profit made from sales. The findings suggest that co-operative societies can function well and become sustainable when there is good management and cooperation amongst members. Based on the findings of this research, it is recommended that the government and co-operative stakeholders should play a greater part in ensuring co-operative societies are developed and managed in a way that will make them sustainable without relying solely on government support. For example, the government and stakeholders can establish and enforce policies that encourage co-operatives to invest in member capability programmes that would equip farmers understanding, adoption and use of co-operative values and principles. This would help in reducing challenges that occur within co-operatives and promote cohesion and commitment within co-operatives. The role of extension services towards the sustainability of the co-operatives is crucial. The majority of the co-operatives indicated that there is some level of interaction between the co-operatives and extension personnel albeit, there is a need to improve the frequency of extension visits, training and follow-up appointments. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2020
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An investigation of the impact of the funding strategy of government on the sustainability of NGO work in them health sector: a case of the Eastern Cape province in South Africa
- Authors: Vhutuzah,Miriam.
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Non-governmental organization , Health services administration , Sustainable development
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/25926 , vital:64564
- Description: Under the apartheid regime the blacks suffered from social exclusion whereby the state sought to provide social services to the white community. Blacks used NGOs to fight the apartheid regime after the banning of political parties by the government. The government tried to quell the social unrest by instituting restrictive legislation to the NGOs. However, the NGOs managed to survive by getting funds from external sources that were anti-apartheid and the funding was camouflaged. While the blacks used the NGOs as frontiers to fight apartheid, they also provided services like health, education and others. The white NGOs managed to thrive unabated. After the fall of apartheid, many leaders left the NGO sector to join the government. It has been of great concern to note that after the apartheid, NGOs failed to assume the position that they used to possess during apartheid. The major objective of the study was to assess the funding strategy of the government in relation to the sustainability of the work of NGOs. This was achieved through analysing the guiding principles and prerequisites of the government in terms of procedures of disbursing funds to NGOs and how this affects NGO operations. The research made use of one major approach in the social sciences which is qualitative. The use of a qualitative technique reflects an attempt to ensure an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon in question. This is what was needed by the question under study, to understand the institutional environment of NGOs by looking into their operational experiences and holding in-depth interviews with NGOs and government officials in order to understand their views about the existing funding strategy. The study found out that the pre-requisites of the funding organisations can be met by NGOs which previously thrived under the apartheid government. Due to their more sophisticated nature, it is these types of NGOs that interface most effectively with the donor community and are major beneficiaries of the bulk of donor funding. It also discovered that the rural-based NGOs are not networked and only rely on government funding which is short-lived. Some of the well established NGOs manipulate the existing opportunities to pursue private interests. Moreover, donors are mainly interested in funding popular activities like AIDS but they target well established organisations. In view of the above findings, the study recommends that the pre-requisites for NGOs must be streamlined to the rural-based NGOs and communication from the government should be improved especially for the rural-based NGOs where forms of communication are limited. There is need to establish an independent body, mandated by the government to carry out NGO issues .The government should also introduce incentives to the donors that fund rural-based NGOs and also encourage donors to fund TB activities by introducing incentives. Moreover, there is need for the government to adopt institutional development principles which emphasises on internal organizational development by training NGO members in order to improve their skills. Externally, the institutional impediments like inherited legal instruments that were pro-apartheid should be addressed. Lastly, there is need for the government to engage NGOs in the policy making process. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce , 2010
- Full Text:
- Authors: Vhutuzah,Miriam.
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Non-governmental organization , Health services administration , Sustainable development
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/25926 , vital:64564
- Description: Under the apartheid regime the blacks suffered from social exclusion whereby the state sought to provide social services to the white community. Blacks used NGOs to fight the apartheid regime after the banning of political parties by the government. The government tried to quell the social unrest by instituting restrictive legislation to the NGOs. However, the NGOs managed to survive by getting funds from external sources that were anti-apartheid and the funding was camouflaged. While the blacks used the NGOs as frontiers to fight apartheid, they also provided services like health, education and others. The white NGOs managed to thrive unabated. After the fall of apartheid, many leaders left the NGO sector to join the government. It has been of great concern to note that after the apartheid, NGOs failed to assume the position that they used to possess during apartheid. The major objective of the study was to assess the funding strategy of the government in relation to the sustainability of the work of NGOs. This was achieved through analysing the guiding principles and prerequisites of the government in terms of procedures of disbursing funds to NGOs and how this affects NGO operations. The research made use of one major approach in the social sciences which is qualitative. The use of a qualitative technique reflects an attempt to ensure an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon in question. This is what was needed by the question under study, to understand the institutional environment of NGOs by looking into their operational experiences and holding in-depth interviews with NGOs and government officials in order to understand their views about the existing funding strategy. The study found out that the pre-requisites of the funding organisations can be met by NGOs which previously thrived under the apartheid government. Due to their more sophisticated nature, it is these types of NGOs that interface most effectively with the donor community and are major beneficiaries of the bulk of donor funding. It also discovered that the rural-based NGOs are not networked and only rely on government funding which is short-lived. Some of the well established NGOs manipulate the existing opportunities to pursue private interests. Moreover, donors are mainly interested in funding popular activities like AIDS but they target well established organisations. In view of the above findings, the study recommends that the pre-requisites for NGOs must be streamlined to the rural-based NGOs and communication from the government should be improved especially for the rural-based NGOs where forms of communication are limited. There is need to establish an independent body, mandated by the government to carry out NGO issues .The government should also introduce incentives to the donors that fund rural-based NGOs and also encourage donors to fund TB activities by introducing incentives. Moreover, there is need for the government to adopt institutional development principles which emphasises on internal organizational development by training NGO members in order to improve their skills. Externally, the institutional impediments like inherited legal instruments that were pro-apartheid should be addressed. Lastly, there is need for the government to engage NGOs in the policy making process. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce , 2010
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