Resolving the disconnect between market actors, agents and brokers and small-holder fresh produce farmers in Agribusiness

Abstract

Farming contributes a good portion of African GDP and employs a substantial percentage of Africa’s labour force. African farming is characterised by smallholder farmers who sell to market actors’ agents and brokers. As a result, farmers complain of low returns on investments and cartel behaviour which discourage younger generation in venturing into farming or taking farming as business. The objective of this paper is to review the literature and suggest a model that could address the disconnect, based on the collective entrepreneurship theory. Keywords: small-holder farmers, market actors’ agents and brokers, cartel behaviour, collective entrepreneurship theory, African farming, agri-business, agro-food chains

Analysis of the impact of the networks on the status of the internal resources of the small-scale agro-processors in South Africa

“…According to Hegazy (2021) and Kumar (2021), inventory is critical to identify expertise and overcoming fragmentation, and these are overlooked mainly by the small-scale agro-processing enterprises in South Africa. Access to markets in any sector, including the agro-food chain, is mainly driven by the network of the entrepreneur and market actors, agents, and brokers in the agro value chain (Campbell, 2021;Kumar, 2021;Mburu, 2021). Thus, business networking is a socio-economic commercial activity in which groups of like-minded entrepreneurs identify, develop, or take advantage of business possibilities (Muranga, 2020).…”