For the majority of rural people, agricultural activities continue to be one of their main livelihood strategies. Production of food crops is not dependent on any formally acquired knowledge of farming but is solely based on indigenous agricultural knowledge passed from generation to generation through experience and careful observations. Resource-poor farmers, especially in rural areas, follow traditional farming methods to produce their food crops and these are specifically tailored to suit their environments. Embo is located in rural KwaZulu-Natal and falls under Mkhambathini municipality. The area is characterised by small-holder farmers who are mainly Ezemvelo Farmers Organisation (EFO) members. The purpose of this study was to review the farming practices followed by farmers in respect of food crop production and secondly to understand what influences the continual practice of such farming practices among rural farming communities of Embo in KwaZulu-Natal especially the EFO farmers. The study looked at what farmers see as traditional agriculture. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used for the study. Data collection methods included participatory observations, semi structured face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. The study found that farmers are happy to follow traditional farming methods to produce their food crops. Traditional farming tools such as the hoe and animal traction are the main implements used to prepare land. Household members are the main source of farm labour with men mainly responsible for ploughing activities while the bulk of planting, weeding and harvesting activities is the responsibility of women. Cropping patterns include intercropping and crop rotation with common crops being amadumbe, beans, maize and sweet potatoes. The majority of these crops are produced for both subsistence and commercial reasons. Amadumbe is an important commercial crop produced organically. Crop protection against pests is done through traditional methods where farmers mix some concoctions made from locally available resource in order to minimise losses. Kraal manure is the main soil fertility strategy followed by farmers. Landrace seeds are the main seed type used by the farmers. Local seed sources include own production and asking from other farmers. Crops with good qualities are selected in fields and maintained as seeds, which are then stored separate from those for home consumption. Harvesting is mainly done manually and for important crops such as tubers with short shelf lives, harvested through piecemeal methods. Farmers are able to generate some income from their efforts and this contributes to local economies and household food security. Farmers value their farming methods and see their farming as efficient despite challenges. There is a need to consider developing labour support groups in order to ease the burden of labour especially by women. In view of the importance of traditional farming in the lives of rural people, it is important that agricultural scientists and extension officers take into consideration the knowledge farmers already have so as to develop technologies suitable for farmers’ environments. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

In South Africa, the majority of inhabitants rely on agriculture as the main source of livelihood. Agricultural crop production remains the primary source of subsistence, employment, and income. Due to policies put in place by the apartheid government, agriculture remained divided into large scale commercial farming and subsistence small scale farming. The 1913 and 1936 Tenure Acts and the 1927 Administration Act favoured white farmers of large scale commercial farms who produced and supplied markets. These acts were effective until 1994. Smallholder farmers were not supported to operate at commercial farming levels and instead remained as subsistence farmers. However, the present government has been putting policies in place to encourage smallholder farmers to operate at commercial farming levels. Smallholder farmers are faced with many challenges that restrict them from being commercially active in crop production. Their challenges range from the lack of land, equipment, and financial resources. They may also struggle to meet the quality and safety standards set by food processors, large retailers, wholesale buyers, and exporters. Smallholder farmers are also constrained by limited support services provided by government. When addressing problems that smallholder farmers are facing it is a common practice to focus on increasing production rather than to look at issues that affect production. It is thus important to look at the whole production system when the aim is to address problems affecting production and to understand the linkages in the system. The objective of this research was to seek a deeper understanding of the quality of relationships among smallholder farmers, extension officers, input suppliers, and output buyers in the maize production system in Msinga, South Africa. This objective was addressed in the application of social learning which was informed by systems thinking in order to gain a deeper understanding of the perspectives, practices, and experiences of all role players involved in maize crop production. This research was conducted through five levels of deeper learning where the first level was the review of literature. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were carried out as tools for data collection in the other four levels of deeper learning. The second level sought to gain individual role player’s perspectives, practices, and experiences on the linkages and the quality of relationships in maize crop production. The third level consisted of two separate focus group discussions that brought together role players that worked together and were familiar with one another. The linkages and the quality of relationships were explored further. The fourth level brought together all role players into one group discussion where there was reflection on the findings of the previous group meetings and a cause and effect analysis on the quality of relationships. The fifth and final level was to establish strategies to improve the quality of relationships among role players in the maize production system. Communication, trust, communal and exchange relationships, control mutuality, satisfaction, and commitment were through a review of literature established as being important indicators of quality of relationships,. It was established that these indicators are interrelated where communication is the most important construct of the quality of a relationship and that the rest of the indicators are developed through communication. However, the findings of the research showed that weak linkages and poor quality relationships among role players of the Maize Production System occurred as a result of farmers’ practices, low literacy levels, lack of financial resources, inappropriate extension approaches, weak production input distribution channels, and farmers’ lack of information and access to output markets. Moreover, limited communication among role players in the system resulted in poor quality of relationships because communication is the most important construct of the quality of relationships. Communication is also the construct through which other indicators are developed. Nevertheless, through social learning, the awareness of the quality of relationships that exist among role players informed new thinking and, as a result it was recognized that change was required. These new insights led to multi-stakeholder conversations over the development of strategies to improve the quality of relationships among role players. These strategies were aimed at improving not only the quality of relationships among role players, but also the forward and backward linkages which would be beneficial to all stakeholders in the maize production system. / Thesis (M.Agric.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Historically, South Africans, particularly small-scale farmers have had little support and hence lack tools and information when faced with production decisions. Information plays an important role in enlightening people, raising their level of knowledge and in turn improving their standard of living and participation in decision making process. Research shows that Information Communication Technology (ICT) like Decision support tools (DSTs) plays an important role in systematic dissemination of information in agriculture, thus improving the quality of farmers’ decisions. Decision support tools provide up-to-date data, procedures and analytical capacity leading to better-informed decisions, especially in rural areas. A body of research is emerging around issues of effectiveness of DSTs for farmers in the developed world. However, few studies have focused on issues around effectiveness of these tools for farmers in the developing world, particularly for resource-limited farmers. This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of a new DST for organic and small-scale farmers with a group of extension officers and researchers in KwaZulu-Natal. As an extension to the DST, a crop disease management component linked to the DST was developed. The study also set to evaluate the effectiveness of the crop disease management component. Extension officers and researchers were purposively selected for this study because both groups play a major role as far as organising and disseminating information to organic and small-scale farmers is concerned. This study identified key measures for effectiveness of DSTs and crop disease management guides using literature from the study. Two frameworks for measuring effectiveness were developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the new DST and its crop disease management component with the extension officers and researchers. Focus group discussions were used for data collection. The frameworks were used as a base for the focus group discussions. Focus groups were conducted to explore and establish whether in the light the groups (extension officers and researchers), the new DST and its crop disease management component are effective. Results from the study revealed that extension officers and researchers felt that the DST and its crop disease management component are effective since they meet key measures for effectiveness identified in the framework. The groups agreed that the DST and its crop disease management component are relevant to small-scale farmers. They also agreed that the DST has the ability to improve access to information for small-scale farmers. Lastly, they also agreed that the DST and its crop disease management component are transparent (meaning flexible and user friendly) for small-scale farmers. Some of the areas for improvement identified by the groups included a need for information on pests and more diseases for the DST and the crop disease management component. Although the groups felt that both the DST and crop disease management were effective, they strongly recommended a need for another study that will aim at developing a pest management component of the DST as this was clearly requested by groups in this study. Results of this study showed that half the respondents felt that the DST was easy enough to be used by small-scale farmers without help from extension officers, while the other half believed that small-scale farmers will still need the help of extension officers to show them how to use the DST. Government and other relevant institutions need to provide appropriate training for these farmers, making the DST useful to them. / Thesis (M.Agric)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.