Analysis of Constraints of Rural Beef Cattle Cooperative Farmers: A Case Study of Ga-kibi, Norma and Mogalakwena in Blouberg

Isaac Azikiwe Agholor

doi:10.5539/jas.v5n8p76

Abstract

Agricultural co-operatives are tools used to accelerate the process of agricultural development. Co-operatives in South Africa are useful tools used to assuage poverty and improve the living standard of the rural household through pooling together the available resources. There is emerging evidence that beef cooperatives and their members can benefit from market oriented agriculture when smallholders farmers are integrated into the value chain management. Furthermore, institutional provisions along the value chain and policies seldom prioritize the needs of smallholder farmers and thus increased the barriers to production and market access. The purpose of this study is to evaluate production and marketing constraints as perceived by beef cattle cooperative farmers in Ga-kibi, Norma, and Mogalakwena. The specific objectives of the study were: (i) to assess production and marketing constraints of beef farmers’ cooperative; and (ii) to determine the role of speculators (traders) in marketing of beef cattle. The paper succinctly examines the tottering problems of speculators and concomitant contribution in the marketing of beef animals in the study areas. The study adduces some reasons for the poor performance of beef co-operatives in achieving their goal. These include amongst others: problem of pest and diseases, water stress, inadequate marketing infrastructures, insufficient market access, price fixing of culled stocks, labour and stock pilfering. Logistic regression was used to evaluate perception of constraints by beef cooperative farmers’. The response pattern revealed that the ability of farmers to perceive constraints increases with number of years of farming experience. The study concludes with proposals to improve the performance of agricultural co-operatives in the study areas.

Highlights

1.1 Background of the Study AreaGovernments of developing countries have often recognized the use of Farmers’ Cooperatives to enhance the performance of small-scale farmers
There has been debate about its effectiveness since most smallholder farmers have no adequate access to the market as exemplified in this study
The results of the study reveal that beef cooperative farmers in Ga-kibi, Norma and Mogalakwena are saddled with the problem of pest and disease, water stress, market infrastructures, inadequate market access, unfair practices of price determination by speculators and stock pilfering

Summary

Introduction

Governments of developing countries have often recognized the use of Farmers’ Cooperatives to enhance the performance of small-scale farmers. The new Cooperatives Act (No 14 of 2005) under which a variety of cooperatives emerged, was signed into law in August 2005 This Act recognizes that a sovereign and self-sustaining cooperative undertaking can play a major role in the economic and social improvement of small scale farmers (Government Gazette, 2005). A study conducted by Machethe (1990) on poor-performing and failed cooperatives in the former homelands of South Africa asserted that co-operators had no sufficient insight with respect to the purpose, responsibilities and management. Similar studies by Kherallah and Kirsten, (2002) emphasised access to start-up capital; knowledge and training in business administration, marketing and bookkeeping; low-levels of education and assertiveness towards work as the causes of non-performance of cooperatives. In many developing countries, including South Africa cattle industry is one of the largest farming www.ccsenet.org/jas

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