Sustainable water management has been identified as a powerful tool to combat persistent food insecurity in South Africa's poor rural communities. The irrigation revitalisation scheme was launched in the first decade of post-Apartheid South Africa and focused on smallholder farmers in the former homeland areas. However, the adoption of irrigation technology has been limited, while official data point to worsening poverty rates and food insecurity as agricultural output declines in the face of rising prices. There is thus strong policy interest to ascertain the circumstances in which irrigation adoption can be enhanced. A cross-sectional research design was utilised to collect data from 200 farmers (adopters and non-adopters) selected through a combination of purposive and stratified sampling methods. Probit regression results suggest that irrigation adoption is influenced by distance to the irrigation scheme, age of the farmer, family size, credit access, extension contact, and group membership. Water management programmes that address community access to irrigation water are likely to enhance adoption of irrigation technology, with credit access and extension provided to ensure sustainable use of the technology.

Improving profit efficiency in vegetable farming, especially for Spinach, is vital in enhancing income, livelihoods, and nutrition security and reducing the poverty of smallholder farmers, particularly in developing countries like South Africa. Despite the country’s potential, spinach production faces major challenges, including unreliable markets, low adoption of modern production systems, and production inefficiencies that affect farm returns. This has been attributed to a lack of adequate and reliable information to guide producers on measures for improving productivity through cost effective production systems and efficient market systems, eventually leading to profit inefficiency. Therefore, this study sought to assess the profit efficiency of smallholder spinach producers under irrigated agriculture in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The study made use of multi-stratified sampling procedures to select 150 spinach producers under irrigation. The stochastic profit frontier function was applied to assess the profit efficiency of smallholder spinach farmers. The results indicated that most farmers operated in farm sizes of 3 ha with an average age of 48 years. The estimates of the stochastic profit frontier function showed that farm size, cost of fertilizer, seed, and pesticides increased profit while labour used decreased profit. Findings indicated a 10% profit loss due to a mixture of technical and allocative inefficiency in the production of spinach, while farmers were able to attain an average profit inefficiency of 90%. Moreover, findings revealed numerous factors that positively affected the profit efficiency of spinach farmers, including socioeconomic, institutional, and cultural. The study findings imply that profit efficiency can increase significantly through the use of high-quality fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides. The allocative efficiency results indicate that improvement in access to extension services, farmers’ level of education, and farm experience can result in the increased allocative efficiency of spinach farmers in the study site. The study further suggests that smallholder farmers must adopt innovative technology to enhance their agricultural productivity, and this is likely to improve household income and nutrition security. Thus, the study recommends that policymakers and government must invest in farmers’ education through effective extension delivery programs and the provision of credit to help farmers increase their profit efficiency.

This study sought to determine the economics of maize farmers in Amatole District, Eastern Cape. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select hundred and nine (109) smallholder farmers (homestead and irrigators). Descriptive statistics and gross margin analysis were used to determine the economics and profitability of maize in the study area. Findings indicated that majority (66 per cent) of them were men with an average age of 61 years old, majority (69 per cent) were married, with mean household size of 4 persons and household heads having some primary education. Moreover, majority (76 per cent) of the farmers depended on irrigation technology; majority (33 per cent) of the famers spent between 9 and 11 years of experience in farming; majority (89 per cent) of the respondents in the study area were dependent on farming as their major occupation and livelihood. Pertaining to land acquisition, majority (48%) of the farmers believed that the traditional or community leaders set rules and regulations regarding land acquisition. From the profitability analysis, smallholder farmer irrigators generated significantly higher yield, total revenues and gross margins more than the homestead gardeners at 5, 10 and 5 per cent levels, respectively. Moreover, homestead gardeners spent more money in purchase of inputs and this may have contributed to their low gross margins. On the other hand, smallholder-farmer irrigators who incur less input costs have higher chances of benefiting from price discounts and transport offer by input suppliers than the homestead gardeners. This results in smallholder farmer irrigators wielding more profits, thereby creating more income and wealth which is pivotal in the improvement of farmers' livelihoods. Keywords: Economics, profitability, Maize farmers, Extension service, Eastern Cape.

Smoking behaviour is one of the negative social problems in South Africa and this is extensively rampant as it affects the education or learning process of learners in high schools. Previous studies indicate that smoking behaviour is highly dangerous to both parents and children. The objectives of this study was to investigate the prevalence and determinants of smoking behaviour among high school learners in Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality; to examine the attitudes of high school learners in Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality towards stopping smoking tobacco. A sample of 180 learners was taken from three selected schools in Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality. The learners were recruited and served as study participants. Data was collected using a selfadministered questionnaire which was designed to measure the prevalence and attitudes of high school learners toward smoking tobaccos. Descriptive and Inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The results showed that male students are 3.65(OR=3.652, 95%CI (1.527, 8.733)) more likely to smoke than female students. This implies being a male student increases the risk of smoking. In addition, the study also showed that students having the knowledge of harmful effects of smoking are 2.34(OR=2.342, 95%CI (0.946, 5.797)) more likely to smoke than those who do not know the harmful effects of smoking. The study suggests that the knowledge of smoking is not proactive to smoking.

No abstract