Rural households livelihoods' strategies and opportunities with regard to farming: a case of Intsika Yethu Local Municipality
- Authors: Gidi, Lungile Sivuyile
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural productivity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Food security -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Households -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Qamata , Livelihood strategies , Irrigation farmers and crop , Livestock production
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics)
- Identifier: vital:11199 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1007218 , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural productivity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Food security -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Households -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Qamata , Livelihood strategies , Irrigation farmers and crop , Livestock production
- Description: South Africa and other developing countries are grappling with high levels of poverty as a result of slow to negligible rural development. Irrigation development is one essential component that can be used to address the challenges faced by smallholder farmers in rural areas. In the President‟s “State of the Nation Address” in 2011, the President of South Africa outlined measures to reduce hunger and poverty in communal areas through enhanced government‟s expenditures in rural infrastructure developments, especially for such amenities as irrigation and roads, with a view to promoting food security. The broad objective of this study is to assess livelihood strategies and opportunities with regard to farming in Qamata area of Intsika Yethu Local Municipality. The stratified random sampling method was applied in order to choose a sample of 70 household that were interviewed by means of semi-structured questionnaires. Out of these, 53 belonged to the irrigation project and 17 farmers were non-irrigation farmers. The results show that women play an active role in agriculture. The Multiple Regression model was used to assess the relative importance of different livelihood strategies adopted by both irrigation and non-irrigation farmers in improving household food security and welfare in Qamata. More specifically, the study assessed the impact of different livelihood strategies on production of butternut, goats, maize and poultry (Chicken) in Qamata. The results show increased agricultural production, crop diversification and higher incomes from irrigation farming as compared to dry land farming. Irrigation farming has enabled many households to diversify their sources of income and therefore include activities and enterprises that contribute to enhanced household welfare. The study showed that household size is crucial in crop production, followed by gender of the household head. The government and research institutes need to come up with programmes to train people on ways to produce crop and livestock products more efficiently.
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Integrated crop-livestock farming system for sustainable economic empowerment of small-scale and emerging farmers in the former homeland of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa: a case study of Ciskei area in Nkonkobe municipality
- Authors: Ngxetwane, Vuyolwethu
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural productivity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural poor -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural assistance -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Food security -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land degradation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Crops -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Livestock -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Farmers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics)
- Identifier: vital:11183 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/459 , Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural productivity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural poor -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural assistance -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Food security -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land degradation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Crops -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Livestock -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Farmers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: For decades, there has been significant investment in the development of agricultural technologies that aim to increase productivity of smallholder farmers in Africa. But farm output and productivity have stagnated and poverty rates have remained high and even increasing in some areas. At the same time, increases in human population levels have resulted in rising demand for food as well as for arable land. The growing intensification of farming has been accompanied by degradation of wild lands, including tropical forests and wetlands, at an alarming rate. Further pressure on fragile land has come from associated urbanization, leading to agricultural land being converted to residential and industrial uses with serious consequences for agricultural production and food supply. The recent increases in food prices across the globe as well as South Africa have drawn attention to this problem even more strongly. The main objective of the current study was to investigate farmer’s perception of the relative importance of crop-livestock integration in the small holder farming systems. Data were collected from 70 emerging and smallholder farmers selected by stratified random sampling in the communities surrounding Alice, Middledrift and the Seymour- Balfour area of Nkonkobe municipality of the Eastern Cape Province. To collect the data, a semi-structure questionnaire was administered to the respondents through face-to-face interviews. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the farmers in terms of their socio-economic and demographic backgrounds. A series of multiple linear regression models and a binary logistic regression equation were fitted to determine the factors influencing farmers’ perception and how these in turn contribute to the decision to adopt or not to adopt crop-livestock integration. The results of the study reveal that small farmers in the Nkonkobe municipality have the possibility of realizing immense benefits from the integrated systems which also have the potential to lead to substantial improvements of the physical, chemical and biological soil properties. There is clear evidence of widespread interest to experiment with the practices based on the strong positive perceptions that a majority of the survey farmers exhibited during the course of the survey. But the farmers are facing challenges in coping with the associated complexities of competition on land, and management skill which are often in limited supply. That in most cases is not enough and efficient even to manage one of these two enterprises alone and reduction in crops yield due to use of manure as a substitute of fertilizer. Constraints to integrating crops and livestock include the competition for resources, especially land. Managing two types of farming on the same farm was perceived as difficult and many respondents held the view that use of waste of one enterprise as input to the other enterprise can reduce productivity. For example some farmers considered that the use of manure to improve soil fertility may not lead to output growth to the same extent as the use of fertilizer. A number of farmers (86%) pointed out that they only market their produce after deducting their consumption share, highlighting the crucial role of food security as a motivation for crop-livestock integration. Complementation of inputs rather than substituting inputs is required to render the system more productive and sustainable as costs are minimized and output is boosted. Associations of grain and livestock producers are useful for filling these gaps which include limited access to credit, technology and knowledge and can promote the adoption of a crop-livestock system.
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