Conceptualizing the socio-cultural impacts of marine plastic pollution on human well-being–a perspective
- Authors: Yose, Papama , Thondhlana, Gladman , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/471196 , vital:77428 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115285
- Description: Marine plastic pollution is one of the major environmental problems globally, with adverse impacts on human well-being but socio-cultural impacts remain poorly conceptualized and little understudied. This perspective paper argues for a more nuanced understanding of the socio-cultural dimensions of impacts beyond direct and quantitatively measured impacts. The paper provides a working definition of and a conceptual framework for categorizing the socio-cultural impacts of marine plastic pollution. It also highlights three dimensions of socio-cultural impacts (lifestyle, mental health, and cultural and heritage impacts), and characterizes and suggests ways socio-cultural impacts can be assessed and recognized. The paper is meant to provoke productive debate and policy and management options for addressing the impacts of marine plastic pollution in socially meaningful and equitable ways.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
The impact of citrus hawking on the livelihoods of the Fort Beaufort community
- Authors: Westwood, Timothy , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473043 , vital:77601
- Description: This article assesses the impact of citrus hawking on the livelihoods of those involved in the citrus hawking informal business in Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Data for this study were collected from interviews with seven hawkers and the citrus packshed, Kat River Citrus Co-operative. It is shown that citrus hawking provides the participants with an income as more than half of them were unemployed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Unlocking markets to smallholders: Lessons from South Africa
- Authors: Schalkwyk, H D V , Obi, A , Tilburg, A V , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/472833 , vital:77577 , ISBN 9789086861682 , 10.3920/978-90-8686-168-2
- Description: This book assesses the institutional, technical and market constraints as well as opportunities for smallholders, notably, emerging farmers in disadvantaged areas such as the former homelands of South Africa. Emerging farmers are previously disadvantaged black people who started or will start their business with the support of special government programs. Public support programs have been developed as part of the Black Economic Empowerment strategy of the South African government. These programs aim to improve the performance of emerging farmers. This requires, first and foremost, upgrading the emerging farmers skills by providing access to knowledge about agricultural and entrepreneurial practices. To become or to remain good farmers they also need access to suitable agricultural land and sufficient water for irrigation and for feeding their cattle. Finally, for emerging farmers to be engaged in viable farming operations, various factors need to be in place such as marketing and service institutions to give credit for agricultural inputs and investments; input markets for farm machinery, farm implements, fertilizers and quality seeds; and accessible output markets for their end products. This book develops a policy framework and potential institutional responses to unlock the relevant markets for smallholders.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
An ecosystem service value chain analysis framework: a conceptual paper
- Authors: Rawlins, Jonathan M , De Lange, Willem J , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69321 , vital:29499 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.12.023
- Description: Modern day societies and economies are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the continued erosion of the stocks and flows of essential ecosystem services. Thus, the management of complex socio-economic systems to effectively provide these essential services has become a global priority policy and academic research area. Understanding how underlying processes and functions contribute towards the provision of final ecosystem services can facilitate improved dissemination of credible, legitimate and salient information to decision-makers. This paper presents an ecosystem service value chain analysis framework that applies basic system dynamics modelling in the form of causal loop diagrams to facilitate an alternative analysis of ecosystem service value chains. A scoping application of the framework is applied to a case study for flood attenuation services in the Baviaanskloof catchment in South Africa. The framework enables the identification of forward linkages and ripple effects in individual value chains of final ecosystem services as well as the identification and assessment of challenges and opportunities within individual causal pathways. Ultimately, providing the potential to advance strategies for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of final ecosystem service provision.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
The impact of property rights to water resources on smallholder development in the Kat River valley
- Authors: Rantlo, Montoeli A , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473066 , vital:77603
- Description: Property rights are social institutions that define and delimit the range of privileges granted to individuals of specific resources, such as land and water. They are the authority to determine different forms of control over resources thus determining the use, benefits and costs resulting from resource use. That is, they clearly specify who can use the resources, who can capture the benefits from the resources, and who should incur costs of any socially harmful impact resulting from the use of a resource. In order to be efficient property rights must be clearly defined by the administering institutions such as state, law and custom. They must be accepted, understood and respected by all the involved individuals and should be enforceable. The property rights influence the behaviour of individuals hence the impact on economic performance and development. The paper has attempted to determine how the situation of property rights to water resources affected the development of smallholders in the Kat River Valley. To capture data, a questionnaire was administered through face-to-face interviews. Institutional analysis and ANOVA were used for descriptive analysis to describe the property rights situation, security of property rights and the impact of property rights on the development of smallholder farming. The results showed that individual land rights holders have secure rights to water resources while communal smallholders and farmers on the invaded state land have insecure rights to water resources. The results from institutional analysis showed that the situation of property rights to water resources negatively affected development of all smallholder farmers in the Kat River Valley. The security of property rights to Kat River should be improved.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Heterogeneous welfare effects of farmer groups in smallholder irrigation schemes in South Africa
- Authors: Phakathi, Sandile , Sinyolo, Sikhulumile , Fraser, Gavin C G , Marire, Juniours
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/472611 , vital:77554 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106780
- Description: This paper analyses the heterogeneous effects of membership of a farmer group on access to water, use of inorganic fertiliser, household incomes, and farm asset holdings. A sample of 401 irrigators in South Africa was analysed using propensity score matching. The study found that group membership had a positive effect on all four outcomes. Group members had an extra four days of access to water in a month, and applied at least 130 kg/ha more inorganic fertiliser, than non-group members. Group members had a higher household income per capita and more assets than nongroup members. However, the result revealed a heterogeneous effect among group members, with the benefits varying according to members’ socio-economic characteristics as well as internal group dynamics. The government and private donors should continue to promote the formation and organisation of farmers into groups. The role of group membership in farming outcomes can be enhanced if smaller groups are promoted. It is also crucial that strategies for promoting trust, reciprocity and group commitment be implemented for better group outcomes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Farmer-led institutional innovations in managing smallholder irrigation schemes in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Provinces, South Africa
- Authors: Phakathi, Sandile , Sinyolo, Sikhulumile , Marire, Juniours , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/471478 , vital:77457 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106780
- Description: Farmer-led institutional innovations have been touted as the key to improving the management of water resources in irrigation schemes. However, little is known about them in South Africa. This study documents institutional innovations by 28 farmer groups located on four irrigation schemes in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces, South Africa. Induced institutional innovation theory, Ostrom’s eight design principles, and thematic analysis of interview transcripts were used to analyse the data. The study results show that 21 groups engaged in institutional innovations, indicating high levels of farmer-led innovative activity among these irrigators. Examples of innovations include, among others, the introduction of a secret voting system to improve participation of marginalised people in decision-making processes, designing daily rotation rosters to reduce conflicts, as well as using an attendance register for participation in group activities, and rewarding members according to their participation levels.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Water footprint assessment to inform water management and policy making in South Africa
- Authors: Pahlow, Markus , Snowball, Jeanette D , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68813 , vital:29327 , http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/wsa.v41i3.02
- Description: Publisher version , One method to inform decisions with respect to sustainable, efficient and equitable water allocation and use is water footprint assessment (WFA). This paper presents a preliminary WFA of South Africa (SA) based on data for the period 1996-2005. Crop production was found to contribute about 75% of the total water footprint of national production. The total water footprint of crop production is mainly composed of five crops: maize, fodder crops, sugarcane, wheat and sunflower seed, which account for 83% of the crop water footprint. The average water footprint of a South African consumer is 1 255 m3/yr, below the world average of 1 385 m3/yr, and is dominated by the consumption of meat (32%) and cereals (29%). About one fifth of this water footprint of consumption is external to SA. While SA is a net virtual water importer, the virtual water trade analysis revealed that a large share of blue water consumption is related to export. Sustainability concerns are that the major river basins face severe blue-water scarcity for extended periods of the year, and that water pollution levels related to nitrogen and phosphorus were found to be unsustainable in all river basins in SA. Efficient allocation and use of water is investigated by means of comparing the consumptive water footprint to global benchmark values, as well as the economic green- and blue-water productivity and the economic land productivity of the crops cultivated in SA. Furthermore, crops with specific potential for biofuel production are assessed. Lastly, recommendations to address the identified issues are given.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
An investigation of multidimensional energy poverty among South African low‐income households
- Authors: Olawumi Israel-Akinbo, Sylvia , Snowball, Jeanette D , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/471097 , vital:77418 , https://doi.org/10.1111/saje.12207
- Description: This paper empirically assesses multidimensional energy poverty for low‐income households in South Africa using the four waves of the National Income Dynamics Study. The study adopts the Nussbaumer et al. (Measuring Energy Poverty, 2011) methodology, the multidimensional energy poverty index (MEPI), to estimate energy poverty on 10,801 low‐income households. The results indicate that low‐income households in rural areas are more energy deprived than those in the urban areas. The MEPI score across the years in low‐income urban and rural households depicts a moderate state of energy poverty. Furthermore, low‐income households in both the urban and the rural areas are mostly deprived in the dimension of heating fuel. The study recommends that suitable measures to combat energy poverty be rural–urban specific.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Shielding rural migrants from unemployment-induced poverty: The informal prickly pear market
- Authors: Ntsonge, Sinazo , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/472822 , vital:77576 , DOI: 10.31901/24566608.2021/74.1-3.3308
- Description: This study highlighted the role that an informal market plays in shielding unemployed rural migrants in urban areas from unemployment-induced poverty using the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) informal Prickly Pear Market as a case study. The purpose of this study was to show how earnings from self-employment or informal employment can be effective in reducing poverty. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework was used as the theoretical basis for unpacking the household socioeconomic factors that influenced the informal prickly pear marketers’ decision to engage in the market. The study found that despite the prickly pear’s short-term availability, the income was channelled towards school supplies and sustained households during the month in addition to social grants, especially after the grant income had finished. The study aimed to revive interest in the Opuntia ficus-indica species, as one of the ways by which poverty can be reduced in the Eastern Cape.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Water footprint assessment of citrus production in South Africa: A case study of the Lower Sundays River Valley
- Authors: Munro, Samantha A , Fraser, Gavin C G , Snowball, Jeanette D , Pahlow, Markus
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69240 , vital:29463 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.06.142
- Description: Water footprint assessment is a developing method that is being increasingly applied to quantify water use, prioritise reductions, assess sustainability and provide information to achieve sustainable, efficient, and equitable water use. The objectives of this paper were to conduct a water footprint assessment of primary citrus production within the Lower Sundays River Valley in South Africa using local, high-resolution data and to examine indicators (water scarcity, pollution, efficiency, productivity and access) to determine the sustainability of blue, green and grey water footprints of a wet, dry and average year. Lemons were found to have the lowest blue and combined green-blue water footprint per ton of production across all climatic years, followed by soft citrus, valencias and navels. Valencias had the lowest, and navels the highest grey WF (relating to inorganic nitrogen). Lemons, despite their high crop water and fertiliser requirements, were regarded more economically efficient in comparison to valencias, soft citrus and navels, in that they provided higher net income and more employment hours per m3 of water in comparison to other citrus crops. In an average season, lemons generated approximately 39% more income per m3 of water than navels, despite navels being the dominant cultivar. Blue water consumption for citrus in the catchment was calculated to be 58.7 Mm3 for an average season and 89.2 Mm3 for a dry season. Due to an inter-basin transfer scheme, no physical water scarcity occurred, and both environmental and basic human needs are met. Water pollution levels related to nitrogen however, exceeded the assimilative capacity of the run-off in dry years. The area also experiences institutional and infrastructural scarcity and 14% of the population do not have access to piped water. Stakeholders and governments may use the results of water footprint assessments to determine the status of river basins, make evaluations for future water usage and the potential impacts of expanding agriculture and different management strategies. Including environmental and socio-economic indicators will also improve the integrity of water footprint assessments.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
The effects of economic incentives in controlling pollution in the South African leather industry: die uitwerking van ekonomiese insentiewe op die beheer van besoedeling in die Suid-Afrikaanse leerbedryf
- Authors: Mowat, Shaun P , Antrobus, Geoffrey G , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143057 , vital:38197 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.1997.9523487
- Description: Pollution of the environment is becoming an increasingly serious problem. A large contributor to this is industry which generates effluent as a by-product of its production process. Two methods of controlling the pollution generated by industry are the so-called “command and control” techniques and economic incentives. In theory, economic incentives promise a more economically efficient and equitable means of pollution control. This paper sets out to ascertain whether this would hold in practice by applying environmental economic theory to the practical problem of controlling the effluent generated by one particular industry, viz the South African leather industry.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
Biofuel policies in Tanzania
- Authors: Mohamed, Sarah , Fraser, Gavin C G , Sawe, Estomih N
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/471167 , vital:77425 , ISBN 978-94-007-2181-4 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2181-4_15
- Description: Tanzania’s energy consumption is dominated by biomass, most of which is consumed by households. Apart from biomass, the country has extensive hydropower, coal and natural gas resources. The overwhelming dependence on biomass for basic cooking and heating needs by the majority in Tanzania, is a major cause of poverty and several other deleterious effects. As a consequence of the harmful effects of fossil fuels, biofuels are seen as a source of sustainable growth to help alleviate poverty in Tanzania. In this chapter, present policies and other framework conditions influencing the development of the biofuel sector in Tanzania are investigated. This includes the Tanzanian Energy Policy, Land Act, National Forest Policy, National Environment Policy, Agricultural Sector Development Policy, and the Tanzanian Transport Policy. The necessity for policies directly related to biofuel production is discussed. The Tanzanian government has established a Biofuels Task Force (BTF) in order to produce guidelines for the design of a set of appropriate policy initiatives. Due to the lack of formal biofuel policies, several external agencies have made recommendations on policies that the Tanzanian government should adopt. It is concluded that the policies existing in Tanzania are indirect and thus biofuel producers lack a reliable framework. Due to increasing biofuels, especially amongst small-scale farmers, the government must seek to provide these smallholders with incentives to grow their productions along with large-scale producers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Regulatory incoherence and economic potential of freshwater recreational fisheries: the trout triangle in South Africa
- Authors: Marire, Juniours , Snowball, Jeanette D , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68621 , vital:29295 , https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/JEI0021-3624480406
- Description: Publisher version , We apply John R. Commons’s negotiational psychology, specifically his principle of sovereignty, to the development of a discordant regulatory culture and its likely impact on the economic potential of recreational fishing. Using South African environmental judicial precedents and other documentation, we formulate six plausible hypotheses. We argue that regulatory incoherence, entitlement insecurity, corporate-dominated social valuation, strategic power coalitions, lack of procedural fairness, and the extent of judicial enforcement of environmental rights help explain the economic potential and isolation of the freshwater recreational fisheries sector. We find a consistent pattern of extraction and monopolization of sovereign power by the Department of Mineral Resources from propertied parties. Thus, regulatory domination is a major mechanism affecting the economic potential of recreational fisheries in the Trout Triangle. While Commons postulated that private property is a sufficient condition for participation in the determination and use of sovereign power, we argue that private/public property is only a necessary condition. The conjunctive sufficient condition is the existence of both regulatory coherence between spheres of government and property.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2014
Making rules to live by: Was the proposed regulatory regime for invasive species reasonable? Perceptions of the South African trout industry
- Authors: Marire, Juniours , Snowball, Jeanette D , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68566 , vital:29285 , http://2015.essa.org.za/fullpaper/essa_2938.pdf
- Description: Publisher version , Despite considerable economic impact of trout-based aquaculture and recreational fishing, the Department of Environmental Affairs has been focusing almost entirely on ecological criteria in deciding the regulatory regime for trout. We examined whether the proposed regulatory regime for alien and invasive species that was published by the Department of Environmental Affairs in 2014 for public comment was reasonable. The analysis produced factors that might matter in the design of reasonable institutional arrangements that impose a reasonable regulatory burden on economic sectors utilising invasive species. We conducted factor analysis using an online survey that we conducted between May and July 2014. We obtained four clusters of factors: participatory policymaking, people-centeredness, credible scientific evidence for listing species as invasive and contextualisation of international evidence. We then utilised the factors in a logistic regression framework to assess their influence on the probability of perceiving the regulations to be reasonable. The likelihood of a trout sector player perceiving the regulations to be reasonable was 1.2%. We found that a one standard deviation increase in the “credibility of scientific evidence” increased the odds of perceiving the regulations to be reasonable by 1645%. A one standard deviation increase in “participation” increased the odds of perceiving the regulations to be reasonable by 410%. A one standard deviation increase in “people-centeredness” increased the odds of perceiving the regulations to be reasonable by 600%. Lastly, a one standard deviation increase in the variable “contextualising international evidence” increased the odds of perceiving the regulations to be reasonable by 415%. This research demonstrates that properly addressing the socioeconomic aspects of new policies in addition to ecological criteria makes it far more likely that stakeholders will regard them as reasonable, even if the new policies impose increased regulatory transaction cost burden on users or reduced access to a resource.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Economic evaluation of chemical and biological control of four aquatic weeds in South Africa
- Authors: Maluleke, Mary , Fraser, Gavin C G , Hill, Martin P
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/453170 , vital:75228 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09583157.2021.1900783"
- Description: Invasive alien plants (IAPs) pose a threat to biodiversity and the economy of the countries they invade. In South Africa, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Natural Resources Management Programmes, previously The Working for Water Programme (WfW) is tasked with controlling IAPs in a way that protects the environment, as well as producing maximum return to society through poverty alleviation. Biological control is one of the management tools used to control IAPs in South Africa. Four aquatic weeds, Pista stratiotes, Salvinia molesta, Azolla filiculoides and Myriophyllum aquaticum, are under complete biological control in South Africa. However, in the absence of biological agents, the WfW programme would have used herbicides to control these weeds. This paper presents a retrospective analysis of the relative herbicide cost-saving associated with the use of biological control instead of chemical control. The study used cost benefit analysis (CBA) framework with an 8% discount rate. The estimated cost of the biological control on all four aquatic weeds was about R7.8 million, while the estimated cost of chemical control to achieve the same level of control varied between R150 million and R1 billion, depending on the method of application and number of follow up operations. Benefit to cost ratios varied between 90:1 and 631:1, again depending on method of application and number of follow up sprays. The results remained robust under a 5% and 10% sensitivity test and show that biological control is the most cost-effective management option for aquatic weeds in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Rural Households’ Perceptions of Rosehip and the Role It Plays in Rural Livelihoods in Lesotho
- Authors: Makhorole, Thato , Fraser, Gavin C G , Phakathi, Sandile
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/472802 , vital:77574 , https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1811407/v1
- Description: Despite the amount of research on the perceived negative impacts of invasive alien species, they remain integral to the rural communities due to their numerous livelihoods uses. More research is required, focusing on the impacts of invasive alien species on the livelihoods of rural communities. This paper investigates the community perceptions of rosehip (Rosa rubiginosa) in Lesotho and its contribution to rural communities. A sample of 160 participants was chosen using simple random sampling. Descriptive, Principal component analysis and the probit model were used to analyse the results.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Water, water everywhere: is Integrated Water Resource Management the right institutional prescription for South Africa's water management challenges?
- Authors: Madigele, Patricia K , Snowball, Jeanette D , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68555 , vital:29282 , http://2015.essa.org.za/fullpaper/essa_2849.pdf
- Description: Publisher version , Ostrom (2007) and Ostrom and Cox (2010) argue that natural resource management has been plagued by the “panacea problem": that one-size-fits-all solutions to allocation and management problems have been applied without due consideration of the specific context. The outcome has been the disappointing results of many development and management programs. Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) has been recognised as a potentially effective way of allocating water where there are multiple, sometimes competing, users (Saravanan et al. 2009). It has been used successfully in a number of other developing country contexts, including Mexico, Brazil, India and Thailand (Orne-Giliemann 2008; Meinzen-Dick 2007). The principles of IWRM were also adopted in South Africa under the National Water Act (1998). Water User Associations (WUA) are seen as one of the key institutions driving IWRM, since they are designed to allow stake-holders at local level a say in the allocation and management of this important public good (Aoki 2001). However, WUAs in South Africa have mostly not been a success and are currently being reviewed at national level. For the most part, emerging black farmers and rural communities still do not have equal access to water, or a meaningful role in decision-making, and there are significant security of supply and allocation issues with regard to municipal users as well. Using the AID (Institutional Analysis and Development) framework (Ostrom 2007), with particular reference to economic theory relating to incentives and transactions costs, this paper asks if IWRM is a panacea treatment that does not fit the diagnosis of South Africa's water management problems. A case study approach is used, focusing on one of the few established WUAs in the Sundays River Valley Municipality in a rural area of South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Is Fairtrade in commercial farms justifiable?: its impact on commercial and small-scale producers in South Africa
- Authors: Jari, Bridget , Snowball, Jeanette D , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69408 , vital:29519 , https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2013.847036
- Description: Fairtrade initially was limited to improving the lives of small-scale and peasant farmers, but later on it embraced commercial farmers, which attracted criticism. While there are a number of justifications for the Fairtrade organization's decision, there are authors who feel that meaningful “fair trade” cannot be achieved with the inclusion of commercial farms. This paper investigates the impact of Fairtrade on commercial farms and small-scale farmer cooperatives in South Africa. Fairtrade on South African commercial farms embraces a number of policy concerns related to land reform, BEE and sustainable development. The results of the study show that when commercial farms are included in the Fairtrade model, communities in which these farmers live benefit from developmental projects. In addition, in some instances, farm workers gain shares in the commercial farms, and benefit from the farm owners’ knowledge and capital.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Influence of institutional and technical factors on market choices of smallholder farmers in the Kat River Valley
- Authors: Jari, Bridget , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/472999 , vital:77597 , ISBN 9789086861682 , 10.3920/978-90-8686-168-2
- Description: In the age of trade liberalisation and globalisation, the world markets are increasingly being integrated. This implies that farmers in the developing world are ever more linked to consumers and corporations of the rich nations. Consequently, local farmers are facing increasing market competition, not only in international markets but in local markets as well. In an effort to withstand the market pressures, agricultural markets are now transforming to a vertically coordinated structure (Reardon and Barrett, 2000). In addition, both the private and the public sectors have made some adjustments in agricultural markets, in order to survive competition resulting from market changes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012