Indigenous crops, through their high nutritional value and hardy attributes, offer potential trade opportunities for rural farmers. There is a niche market that can be explored for these indigenous crops particularly with the growing demand for high nutritional value food in the country. These crops are mostly produced by rural households or gathered from the wild by rural farmers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify potential markets for African leafy vegetables (ALVs) by farmers in Limpopo Province. Sixty households producing ALVs were selected with the composition of 54 women and six men, with this selection done using a purposive sampling procedure. Of the total production, 50–60% of the produce was sold in the informal market. It was evident that local rural markets constituted a greater portion of the total market at 73% and 20% allocated to hawkers in town. As a result, urban and periurban consumers present potential buyers since these areas are populated with the middle-class population which is susceptible to changing consumption trends. Because of this potential, supermarkets and township hawkers are proposed as the potential channel for ALVs targeting the identified population. Thus, it is suggested that, in order to create a synergy between economic improvement of rural farmers and trending consumer demands, the Department of Agriculture in Limpopo Province creates a conducive environment through which ALV farmers can be connected with supermarkets and township marketers.
Climate change is a global challenge which is causing persistent droughts in South Africa. This is concerning in the absence of a proper management strategies targeting small-scale vegetable farmers especially for agricultural sustainability and food security. The sustainability of agriculture and food supply is in line with the second goal (Zero Hunger) of 2030 UN sustainable development goals. The focus of this chapter is on small-scale farmers as opposed to commercial farmers because of the differential vulnerability to drought as a result of social, economic and environmental conditions. Drought persisted in the in major parts of South Africa especially the Northern Cape and existing policies and management frameworks are inadequately equipped to sustain affected famers. Although both small-scale and commercial farmers are affected, small-scale farmers are highly vulnerable as they lose their entire livelihood during droughts. The revision undertook extensive literature and focused on the national framework for the management of drought developed by the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries DAFF as a conceptual base. The chapter reveals that, drought mitigations strategies employed by the integrated drought management teams are not adequate to address the impact and sustainability on small-scale farmers.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of land access and livelihood strategies of rural households to well-being of households ' implications to extension agents in Mnquma, Eastern Cape. A cross-sectional research design was utilised to collect data from 105 randomly selected households. Descriptive statistics was then used to profile livelihood strategies and characteristics such as age, gender, years of farm experience, the availability of water and land for crop production and the income farmers generate from the sale of crops produced. Multinomial logistic regression results demonstrated that land size and location have a positive significant influence (p = 0.001) on household well-being. It is concluded that though land size has a positive influence on well-being, expanding farms through adding plots and distant farming hinders the attainment of well-being. Moreover, households with large number of dependents and those working in exclusive farming are disadvantaged in the attainment of well-being. There is therefore room to enhance progress in attainment of well-being through reducing the distance to farms and promoting diversification of livelihood strategies. The Eastern Cape department of Agriculture and Rural Development is advised to support distant farmers with settlements in their destinations. Furthermore, extension agents do play a significant role in promoting livelihoods of rural households and contribute towards improved land access. Keywords: Land access, livelihood strategy, rural households, South Africa
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