The objective of the study is to analyze the impact of the ECRDA in projects managed by Eastern Cape emerging farmers. In this study, emerging farmers are farmers that are participating in the market and have intentions to produce and sell at a large scale. The study also investigates the challenges facing the emerging farmers supported by ECRDA as well as the support given to these farmers by ECRDA. The study is based on randomly selected farmers around Eastern Cape Province that are supported by ECRDA with finance to buy production inputs. Six interviews have been conducted around Eastern Cape, one in each of the six district municipalities. The information was transcribed and verbatim text was produced. From the verbatim text about 8 themes and sub- themes were identified and were analysed using qualitative content analysis method. The themes that were identified are: The first theme was the lack of infrastructure make a conducive farming environment. The second was the insufficient service from ECRDA officers, as well as those from the department of agriculture. The third theme that emerged was the availability of farming land from which the clients plough, and also use as a grazing land for their livestock. The fourth one focuses on the access to capital, and the challenges that are encountered when applying for loan at ECRDA. The fifth theme is the concern about the safety of the maize they plant, not only from the unattended livestock, but as well as thieves, when the maize is ready. The sixth theme is the availability of market, where the farmers are able to sell their produce when it is ready. The seventh theme was skills development, and whether farmers are trained in order to be effective and efficient farmers. The last theme focuses on loan repayment, how the farmers repay the loan from the ECRDA. These themes constitute the main challenges that hinder the sustainability of emerging farmers’ projects.

The changing agricultural environment (dualistic agricultural landscape, land reform programme, market liberalisation and globalisation) has caused emerging ostrich farmers to become increasingly isolated. Governmental agriculture reforms and public sector interventions have been insufficient to address all the challenges faced by rural ostrich farmers in the Eastern Cape. Participation in the ostrich supply chain for emerging farmers in the Eastern Cape is currently unsustainable as a result of avian influenza, control and registration protocols for ostriches (VPN04), structural barriers in marketing, technical constraints and a lack of market participation. People in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape are challenged by inferior infrastructure, poor site conditions, low earnings, poor access to health services and unreliable water sources. The marginal conditions and prevalent complexities in which agriculture is practised require costly resource intervention. Intensive ostrich production necessitates continuous genetic improvement, methodical record keeping, intensive egg incubation methods and highmaintenance chick rearing and ostrich handling while minimising feed costs throughout this process. Rural farmers have not embraced ostrich farming in the same way as they have done with other livestock farming because it does not offer the anthropological functions that traditional livestock farming provides. The ostrich supply chain requires a wide range of activities to bring products to the final consumer. The worth of ostrich production lies mainly in the higher returns which are achieved only through the export markets. Today the ostrich industry has become vulnerable to market cannibalism, a lack of market development, unregulated numbers of ostriches and recurring international meat bans. The deregulation of the ostrich single-channel marketing system had a substantial effect on the value chain on which farmers depended for market access and market protection. As the majority of ostrich products are being exported to the European Union, the role of intermediary agencies is becoming an important factor influencing entry into the high-end markets. This agent structure that represents the South African ostrich industry is vital for the distribution, market penetration and regulation of the ostrich products. The ostrich leather, which is today the main product line, is primarily used for luxury goods and is susceptible to economic downturn and over-supply. The ostrich meat industry has been severely influenced by outbreaks of avian influenza and processors now pre-heat the meat in order to maintain export. However, this preheating meat facility is only for export produce and available to farmers who conform to VPN04 and have officially registered farms. The relevant South African government departments played a crucial role in identifying avian influenza outbreaks and liaising with the European Union about avian influenza isolation strategies. No previous studies have been conducted on the participation of emerging farmers in the Eastern Cape ostrich-industry supply chain and on the interventions required to address the multiple constraints and forces in this sector. This led to a study with research emphasis on the required capacity for supply-chain participation and the supporting mechanisms that would be required for emerging ostrich farmers to integrate successfully into this supply chain. An exploratory research approach was chosen for the investigation, as no earlier research has been undertaken that could serve as a source of reliable data or reference. A triangulation research methodology using both the quantitative and the qualitative approach was applied. The qualitative research entailed an interpretive approach associated with using grounded theory and content analysis for interpreting data. The comparative case study design was the main qualitative research instrument for the multiple-case studies on emerging ostrich farmers in the Eastern Cape. The study was undertaken at five different sites, namely, the Peddie Ostrich Programme, the Rockhurst Ostrich Programme, the Hlumani Co-operative farm, the Zamukwanda Ostrich farm near Pearston and the Mimosadale Ostrich farm. The quantitative methods were applied to capture all the measurable components and representations of the stakeholders and participants, through interviews, questionnaires and focus group interviews. The quantitative study also included an experimental instrument to measure the capacity of emerging farmer programmes for supply chain participation. It was found that the main driver for three of the case studies pertained to land ownership and that ostrich farming was incidental and only seen as means of activity for income. These three humanitarian farming projects had limited capacity for intensive management requirements for ostrich farming. It was found that the VPN04 bio-security protocols and disease control require a higher level of record keeping for EU markets and is prohibitively expensive for poor rural emerging farmers. The study established that the emerging ostrich farming programmes contributed value to the industry and government rural development in land redistribution programmes, vehicles for reduction of poverty and job creation in the rural areas and by acting as out-grower programmes for commercial farmers. The researcher’s observation is that through strategic interventions the programmes have potential to become commercial players in the industry. The following interventions were recommended from this study: Feasibility study of programmes and review of location selection before initiation. Providing supportive interventions for programme start-ups; Improved selection of programme beneficiaries; Improved structure of emerging farmers’ co-operatives; On-going and appropriate training for emerging ostrich farmers; The role of government and mentors needs to be defined; Reducing feed costs; Establishing programmes linkages to informal markets and facilitating increased self-consumption; Developing new export markets; Alternative finance for the no-income months; Alternative marketing channels to export markets; Representation of emerging farmers in the ostrich-industry leadership structures.

Food security and self-sufficiency in the rural areas has been and remains a major concern for the South African government. The study aimed to investigate farmer’s perception of factors influencing small-scale vegetable production in Tsengiwe village in the Eastern Cape. The research focus was on the following aspects that may have an influence on small-scale vegetable production: socio-economic factors, production and resource deficiencies and the impact of indigenous leafy vegetables. The researcher conducted several demonstration workshops during the field work. The pilot studies and community engagements were essential to extract knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions of indigenous or local communities. The action research was part of the reflective process of broadminded problem solving led by researcher and community. The research approach used a triangulation research method to extract information, whereby both quantitative and qualitative research was used to ensure greater accuracy. The main data collection was obtained from interviews with small-scale farming households in the Tsengiwe area. The study revealed that households were dependent on elderly female pensioners to source food and water. These women received most of their income from social grants and were mainly responsible for all farming activities in the households. Most households attempted to produce vegetables, although food security and self-sufficiency through own production was rarely achieved.Other perceived farming challenges included: lack of market accessibility, irrigation infrastructure, drought, financial limitations and soil degradation. Indigenous leafy vegetables were found to play a nutritional role in times of food shortage and not as much for their medicinal value. The study recommended the following interventions: Support for the elderly women in development and production practices, interventions to address factors affecting vegetable production, improving soil structure, working towards food self-sufficiency, moving away from dependence on mechanisation in rural farming.

This study was motivated by the realisation that the Eastern Cape Province is a leading producer of cattle, but few to none of those cattle makes it to auction markets. The study was conducted in the Elliot area, selected as an area with a high number of Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development farms, as well as private farms and communal farmers. Most of these farmers battled to sell their cattle to the auctions or abattoirs. The objective of the study was therefore to investigate challenges facing smallholder beef cattle famers and those factors which prevented them to access auction markets to sell their cattle in the Elliot area. The second was to assess the effectiveness of the Livestock Improvement Scheme in support of smallholder beef cattle farmers in terms of the outcome and achievements of training these individuals to become successful farmers. The last was to find out how beef cattle farmers benefited from the scheme. Both semi-structured interviews and an open-ended questionnaire were used to collect data. A sample size of 10 farmers (eight farmers from LRAD/private and two from communal farmers) was selected, and observation was done on the auctions and abattoirs available in Elliot. The study found that smallholder cattle farmers struggle to sell their stock through formal and informal markets, as they are faced with marketing constraints.Such marketing constrainst are lack of marketing information, drought, poor condition of cattle, lack of infrastructure, shortage of land for grazing, price takers, stock theft, transaction costs, problems with cattle identification, and lack of physical access to markets. The study has also made recommendations on how smallholder cattle farmers of Elliot can be developed to procure markets to sell their stock.

The study focused on the role of the State and the environment in indigenous livestock farming in Debe Marela in Middledrift. Although communal farmers in the area used ethnoveterinary medicines to treat and prevent animal diseases, they also widely used conventional medicines, as these often provided a remedy to animal diseases. The livestock farmers believed in indigenous knowledge which empowered them in using herbs to a certain extent, but the latter was preferred. The Department of Agriculture has featured as a support institution and although livestock farmers in the area have participated in and benefitted from state programmes, they believe that they needed more interventions such as visits from veterinary surgeons, Extension Officers and Animal Health Technicians. The study therefore attempts to address the gaps highlighted in the work of other researchers.

In general, traditional co-operatives suffer from free-rider, horizon, portfolio, control and influence problems that starve them of both equity and debt capital. Evidently, the factors which constrain agricultural development also inhibit co-operative development in the former homelands. These factors include socio-economic as well as political factors operating in the environment of the cooperatives. In addition to these external factors, co-operatives have several internal problems such as inefficient management and lack of understanding of the co-operative concept and principles. The New Cooperative Act No. 14 of 2005 was an attempt at addressing these fundamental problems. The purpose of this study was to analyze the extent towhich cooperatives organized on the basis of this new Act have performed and to ascertainwhether or not they have met the expectations of the policy makers. In order to address these issues a structured questionnaire was used to interview 100 farmers. Farmers were divided into two groups, one group consisting of fifty members and the other fifty non-members; all these farmers were randomly selected from Ndonga and Maqhashu in Lady frère. The study investigated and profiled the socio-economic situation of the communities of Ndonga and Maqhashu with particular emphasis on the employment and poverty situations, as well as the income earning opportunities in the communities. It also undertook a comparison of the members and non-members of the co-operatives in terms of their production results under the sorghum production programmes in the two communities.The data were analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics which explain some measures of central tendency and dispersion as well as levels of significance. A t-test of independent samples was used to compare the means for the sorghum yields and revenues for non-members and members of the co-operative. Gross margin analysis was also used to determine the financial implications of cooperation for the smallholders. In addition, a multiple regression model and a discriminant function were fitted to determine the factors explaining the differences in performance of members and non-members of the cooperative society. The Gross Margin analysis shows that the cooperatives are operating at a loss, meaning they produce less with high production costs. However, the results also show that the Ndonga and Maqhashu sorghum co-operative did not benefit only its members but the whole community through significant job creation for the local population.

This paper presents the findings of part of a research project entitled "Population Mobility and Settlement Patterns in the Eastern Cape, 1950 to 1990", which was funded by the Human Sciences Research Council. The part of the project with which this paper is concerned, is the study of resettlement in the Border/Ciskei area of the (new) Eastern Cape Province. It involves two main foci: a) the Whittlesea district of the former Ciskei, where research was done in the resettlement area of Sada (where findings are compared with research done there in 1981) and Dongwe; and b) the Fort Beaufort area, where we looked at the two 'black spot' communities of Upisdraai and Gqugesi which were uprooted and moved to the Fort Beaufort township of Bhofolo in the 1960s, and at the establishment of black citrus farmers in the Kat River Valley in the late 1980s, on previously White owned farms which were bought out by the (then) Ciskei government. In the Conclusion, some important differences are suggested between resettlement in the Eastern Cape and in QwaQwa, one of the areas of South Africa that has been most severely affected by resettlement. Ways in which the South African material may be seen in terms of prevailing models for the analysis of resettlement, and may provide an input for the modification of these approaches, are briefly considered. / Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER)