Beneficiaries' strategies for coping with extension challenges in poultry-based poverty alleviation projects in a rural local municipality of South Africa

Abstract

The advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994 necessitated socioeconomic transformation for rural poverty reduction and development. Since then, all spheres of government, nongovernmental organisations, the business sector and residents of rural areas have been introducing poultry-based poverty alleviation projects (PAPs). Despite the benefits that accrue from implementing poultry-based PAPs such as improved food security and job creation, there is a growing concern that the support from the government-led extension service is inadequate. Coping strategies, which PAPs rely on are not sustainable. Taking this issue into account, a study was carried out to identify and explain the institutional, production and marketing coping strategies that the poultry-based PAPs in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality of Mpumalanga Province adopted. Questionnaires were administered to 116 respondents comprising of chairpersons, secretaries, and ordinary members of PAPs. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 23.0 was used to compute the means of scores assigned to perceptions of institutional, production and marketing coping strategies of PAPs. The top ranked coping strategies were inadequate extension officers supporting the PAPs, procurement of stock in small quantities, buying water from people who owned boreholes, purchasing poor quality day-old chicks, relying on the local community as the market for produce, and selling broilers on credit. It was reconfirmed that inadequate extension support forced the PAPs to adopt various coping strategies. The need for more effective strategies that would enhance the sustainability of PAPs was highlighted.