Small-scale commercial farming firms play a critical role in achieving the objectives of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the rural economies of Sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa has a sizeable number of households engaged in small-scale agriculture to supply rural market demand. Small scale commercial agriculture has become a key source of revenue, employment, and food security for communities in rural areas. As such, the South African government has been assisting small-scale farmers financially via the Micro-Agriculture Finance Institutions of South Africa and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. This support aims to alleviate poverty, create jobs, and improve food security by promoting small-scale commercial farming, primarily in rural areas. Despite this assistance, there is no clear strategy for achieving significant and evidence-based development. This study outlines a four-step intervention strategy for promoting small-scale commercial farming as a strategy for rural economic development in South Africa. These steps include defining a small-scale farming development strategy, and delineating production, performance, policy, and control measures.

Much empirical literature has focused on investigating the role of government expenditure in promoting long-term economic growth in South Africa. However, few studies in comparison have considered the impact of government spending on literacy level in the country. To this end, this paper examines the impact of government spending on literacy rate in South Africa using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model with annual time series data over the period from 1994 to 2021. The key findings of this study are: (a) there is evidence of a long run relationship between government spending on education and the literacy rate in South Africa; (b) while the long run effect of government education spending on literacy is not significant, there is a statistically significant positive effect in the short run. These findings have several implications for policymakers and other stakeholders. Therefore, the study recommends that increased monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are desirable in the primary and secondary education sectors for accountability and reducing wastage of taxpayer funds. The Department of Education is also encouraged to re-consider current teacher training practices and fill long standing vacancies in the school sector that negatively impact education outcomes.

South Africa struggles with low secondary school completion rates and this has a negative effect on poverty and inequality. In this study, we examine the relationship between internal migration (international migrants were excluded) and non-migrant educational outcomes (secondary school enrolment and completion rates) in South Africa between 1996 and 2011. We use census data for the years 1996, 2001 and 2011 (at the district and municipal levels) in several linear probability regression models that include the First Difference (FD) and System Generalised Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) with instrumental variables. The 2011 census is the latest available in South Africa now. We find that internal migrants have a positive effect on both enrolment and completion rates of non-migrants. These results vary in intensity depending on the level of education of both internal migrant and non-migrant household heads. These results have implications for the local labour market and for income inequality in South Africa; internal migrants provide positive peer effects that contribute to raising non-migration enrolment and completion. Internal migrants also provide job market competition which influences non-migrants to complete secondary schooling. There is scant empirical evidence on the impact of internal migration on education outcomes in African countries, especially in South Africa. Our paper provides evidence from a country with a history of persistent internal migration. Most prior research has focused on the relationship between immigration and education outcomes in the developed world. We recommend that government improves secondary school quality in rural and urban areas and increase study loans for students at tertiary institutions.