Factors Affecting Marketing of Vegetables among Small-Scale Farmers in Mahikeng Local Municipality, North West Province, South Africa

S.H Matsane,A.S Oyekale

doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p390

Abstract

Agricultural produce from small-scale farmers is often lost after production due to so many marketing challenges which make it difficult for small-scale farmers to explore full market potentials and they also reduce incentives of participation in formal (commercial) or high-value markets. The main objective of the study was to identify and analyse factors affecting (constraints) marketing of vegetables among small-scale farmers. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and regression analysis. Results showed that prominent constraints of marketing vegetables among the small-scale farmers were: lack of access to credit, lack of access to storage facilities, lack of market information, lack of finance for farming, poorly developed village markets, poor producer prices, high perishability of produce, low patronage, inadequate access roads, small size of transport and high transportation costs. Variables that significantly influenced monthly net farm income were: gender (t = 3.913), farm size (t = 4.100), number of employees (t = 6.126), access to storage (t = -2.132), grading of products (t = 3.712) and access to extension services (t = 1.757). Recommendations suggested include: enabling accessibility through the development of better infrastructure in the form of storage facilities, roads for transportation and communication systems; and the formation of marketing cooperatives to overcome high transportation costs, small size of transport and individual small marketing output problems in order to attract and penetrate high value-markets. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p390

Highlights

Agriculture is important to the society in terms of poverty alleviation, food security and economic growth
It indicates that 21.3% of the farmers fell within the group of 20-39 years, 41.7% within 40-59 years, 27.7% within 60-79 years and 8.5% was above 80 years old
The lack of interest of young people in farming may have a negative impact on agricultural development because the current farmers are aging

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture is important to the society in terms of poverty alleviation, food security and economic growth. It is the backbone of many African economies (Balarane & Oladele, 2011). Many people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods (World Development Report, 2008). An estimated 86 percent of rural people rely on agriculture as a livelihood option and it provides jobs for 1.3 billion smallholders and landless workers (Tita, 2008/9). In South Africa, the agricultural sector comprises of the well-developed commercial farming (Antwi & Seahlodi, 2011), which has a small number of commercial operators predominantly operated by white farmers (Senyolo et al, 2009), and more subsistence-based production in the deep rural areas (Antwi & Seahlodi, 2011) operated by black farmers (Senyolo et al, 2009)

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Conclusion