Analysis of Factors Affecting Proper Functioning of Smallholder Agricultural Cooperatives in the Limpopo Province of South Africa

Thaba, K.; Anim, F.D.K.; Tshikororo, Mpho

doi:10.1080/09709274.2016.11906997

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The tone of the responses suggests that they think this was unfair. This was not only flagged as a problem in ZFSCa similar finding in Limpopo was reported in Thaba's (2016) study among the dysfunctional projects.…”

Section: Damsupporting

confidence: 74%

Why do agricultural co-operatives fail to attract youth and create rural employment? Evidence from a case study of Zanokhanyo in Butterworth, Eastern Cape

Zantsi¹

2021

S Afr. Jnl. Agric. Ext.

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In the National Development Plan, cooperatives and agriculture development are identified as possible solutions for addressing rural poverty and unemployment, especially among the youth. However, according to most research/literature, agricultural cooperatives fail for many reasons, including but not limited to lack of capital, incompetent management and organizational deficiencies. This study applied a qualitative analysis to the qualitative data using a case study of Zanokhanyo Food Security Cooperative (ZFSC) in Ndabakazi, Butterworth. Interviews with the project members, ex-members, extension officers and youth were conducted through a semi-structured questionnaire administered in IsiXhosa. According to the results, lack of intensive production resulting in very low incomes is one of the reasons why projects such as ZFSC fail to attract young people and provide employment for rural people. Agricultural extension advisory services play a very limited role because of their generalist approach; they lack depth of knowledge about diverse agricultural subject areas. This study recommends that agricultural extension and the farmers’ support system be improved by employing or outsourcing specialists to cater to the needs of agricultural cooperatives in order to improve the productivity and income of agricultural cooperatives.

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Section: Damsupporting

confidence: 74%

Why do agricultural co-operatives fail to attract youth and create rural employment? Evidence from a case study of Zanokhanyo in Butterworth, Eastern Cape

Zantsi¹

2021

S Afr. Jnl. Agric. Ext.

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“…This further shows that the discriminant function used for the analysis was appropriate. %Grouped cases correctly classified results, show the prediction accuracy of the model is 61.7%, so it is evident that the discriminant function has high precision prediction, because in general the accuracy in over 50% is considered valid, as noted by Thaba et al (2016). The standardized canonical discriminant coefficients of the independent variables showed that the variables that separated the two groups of farmers the most were: agricultural education (X4), age group (X5) and off farm income (X8).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Perception Driven From Farmers’ Socio-economic Characteristics Towards Tackling Climate Change

Tshikororo¹,

Thaba²,

Nefale³

et al. 2021

JAS

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Climate change is part of us and we are unlikely to avoid its impact. Impacts of climate change are severely felt within the agricultural sector, the division that strives to ensure food and nutrition security and contribute towards sustainable development in many of the developing countries. The only way farmers can survive in the face of climate change is through adaptation, a phenomenon that needs collaborative efforts. One of the critical driving factors of climate change adaptation is farmers’ perception towards tackling it, the focus of this paper. The main objective of this paper was to assess farmers’ perception towards tackling climate change. The population of the study was emerging farmers drawn from five districts of the Limpopo province, South Africa. The study used a two-stage cluster sampling technique to select a sample size of 206 emerging farmers. The dependent variable of the study was farmers’ perception about tackling climate change while the explanatory variables consisted of their socio-economic characteristics such as age, gender, farming experience and level of education. Discriminant Analysis was used to draw comparison between groups of farmers who perceived that climate change can be tackled and those who believed it cannot be. The results showed that socio-economic characteristics such as formal education, agricultural education, age group, farming experience and off-farm occupation significantly contributed towards farmers’ perception regarding tackling of climate change. Therefore, the study recommended that stakeholders should facilitate linkage of farmers with varied sources of support.

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“…These recommendations are consistent with the literature on agricultural cooperatives, which emphasizes the importance of capacity building programs in enhancing collective actions. For instance, recent quantitative studies on the impact of collective marketing of paddy rice on the livelihoods of smallholders farmers in Benin [45] and the analysis of factors affecting proper functioning of smallholder cooperatives in the Limpopo Province of South Africa [51] concluded that better training through extension officers on technical skills such as financial management and conflict management is one of the important factors that may sustain cooperations. These recommendations may also learn from the European Common Agricultural Policy Reform and the unexpected outputs of financing measures, where eligibility criteria eliminated small and vulnerable farmers from technical and financial support [52].…”

Section: Stages Of Life Cycle Current Situationmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Transition from Cooperations to Cooperatives: A Case Study of the Factors Impacting the Organization of Urban Gardeners in Benin

et al. 2019

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Urban gardening offers a viable option to improve diet diversity for the urban poor. Yet, its success rate is particularly dependent on the managerial capacities of urban gardeners to coordinate and organize collective actions for the successful exploitation of the gardens. The calls from governments to organize cooperative structures among farmers seem justified and merits a high priority on agricultural policy agendas. Although principles of cooperative structures exist, there is no blueprint available that indicates how to start a gardeners’ cooperation. Moreover, these collaborations need to ally with and build on existing social structures of the urban gardeners involved. Our research can contribute to this alignment process by exploring and comparing international standards of prevailing organizations and their functioning among 261 gardeners in two cities in Benin. We found that a vast majority of urban gardeners are members of a cooperation. Nevertheless, their membership is largely titular because gardeners mostly behave semi-autonomously and few decisions are taken collectively. The obvious economic advantages of leveraging bargaining power, reducing transaction costs, and increasing possibilities for loans are seriously underutilized. We suggest that capacity building can help to develop cooperation among urban gardeners to reach their full potential which, congruently, should also improve the livelihoods of the urban poor.

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Analysis of Factors Affecting Proper Functioning of Smallholder Agricultural Cooperatives in the Limpopo Province of South Africa

Cited by 12 publications

References 4 publications

Why do agricultural co-operatives fail to attract youth and create rural employment? Evidence from a case study of Zanokhanyo in Butterworth, Eastern Cape

Why do agricultural co-operatives fail to attract youth and create rural employment? Evidence from a case study of Zanokhanyo in Butterworth, Eastern Cape

Perception Driven From Farmers’ Socio-economic Characteristics Towards Tackling Climate Change

How to Transition from Cooperations to Cooperatives: A Case Study of the Factors Impacting the Organization of Urban Gardeners in Benin

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