No description available.

<p>This study identifies the determinants of sheep prices for small-scale sheep farming households in two districts of the Eastern Cape, namely Amathole and Ukhahlamba (Joe Xabe). Output prices that small farm households receive for their sheep affect their incomes from agriculture (knowing that revenue is a product of quantity and price), which, in turn, influence their living standards. The study isolates three sets of determinants of price formation in local agricultural markets - structural drivers, institutional factors and livelihood shocks - to account for the variations in prices that smallholder farmers receive. Data were collected from 134 households that were selected using purpose sampling and preceded by key informant and focus groups interviews with actors along the sheep value chain. A questionnaire consisting of both open-ended and quantitative questions was used. The relationship between output price formation and clusters of determinants is a typical hedonic pricing framework, which is fitted using a backward stepwise econometric technique that is a widely used experimental tool to identify significant determinants.</p>

Local perceptions and livelihood strategies have in this study been examined through extensive fieldwork in two villages in rural Pondoland in the former homeland Transkei in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. Using a bottom-up perspective, changes in livelihoods and the processes involved in choosing between and combining various types of livelihood activities are analysed. The study also looks at specific South African policies, targeted at poverty relief and restriction of natural resource use, from the local perspective and points at communication problems between the national and local levels. Livelihoods in Transkei are today often conceptualised as consisting of subsistence agriculture combined with monetary incomes in the forms of state pensions and remittances from migrant labourers. This view is challenged by the results of the present study, showing that local jobs are the major components of livelihoods in the studied villages. Informal jobs are stressed as constituting an important, and perhaps previously underestimated, part of local job opportunities. While pensions also do make important contributions to livelihoods, the significance of agriculture, livestock keeping and various forms of natural resource use is shown to be relatively low. Key insights are that livelihood activities in rural Transkei vary a lot between specific localities, and that important recent changes in livelihoods have taken place. Transkei is furthermore often conceptualised as a region where severe environmental degradation is taking place, a fact that is also contradicted by findings from the study area. In accordance with recent research on an ‘African degradation narrative’, the hopeless and homogenous picture of Transkei as a generally degraded region is questioned. These results are also used to critically examine concepts such as ‘multiple livelihood strategies’ and the tendency to generalise about rural livelihoods across regions, countries or even continents. / Lokala uppfattningar och försörjningsstrategier har i denna studie undersökts genom långvarigt fältarbete och omfattande intervjuer med lokalbefolkningen i två byar i den rurala kustregionen i Pondoland, i Sydafrikas f.d. ‘homeland’ Transkei (idag Östra Kapprovinsen). Under apartheidtiden tvingades Sydafrikas befolkning av afrikanskt ursprung i hög utsträckning att bo i dessa s.k. homelands, vilket anses ha lett till både fattigdom och omfattande miljöförstöring i dessa områden. Transkei konceptualiseras idag därför ofta som ett problemområde, där befolkningen överlever på småskaligt jordbruk, nyttjande av, statliga bidrag och pengar från släktingar som jobbar i storstäder. Denna studie ifrågasätter upprätthållandet av en sådan bild av Transkei, genom att peka på att majoriteten av hushållen i fältområdet idag har lokala jobb. I detta sammanhang har informella jobb en viktig och troligtvis tidigare underskattad roll. Studien pekar också på att försörjningsstrategier är föränderliga och att det finns stora skillnader mellan olika lokaliteter med avseende på olika försörjningsmöjligheter. Många studier i Afrika har på senare tid ifrågasatt antaganden om att olika regioner är generellt degraderade, och visat på att detta ofta kan vara ett narrativ som av olika skäl upprätthålls utan att närmare granskas. Denna studie visar däremot på att miljön i fältområdet inte är generellt degraderad och att lokalbefolkningen inte överutnyttjar naturresurserna. Därmed bidrar studien till att nyansera en ibland alltför homogen och hopplös bild av Transkei som region. Studien granskar också specifika Sydafrikanska policies för naturvård och fattigdomsbekämpning utifrån lokalbefolkningens perspektiv och visar på problematiska kommunikationsbrister mellan nationell och lokal nivå.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / This study identifies the determinants of sheep prices for small-scale sheep farming households in two districts of the Eastern Cape, namely Amathole and Ukhahlamba (Joe Xabe). Output prices that small farm households receive for their sheep affect their incomes from agriculture (knowing that revenue is a product of quantity and price), which, in turn, influence their living standards. The study isolates three sets of determinants of price formation in local agricultural markets - structural drivers, institutional factors and livelihood shocks - to account for the variations in prices that smallholder farmers receive. Data were collected from 134 households that were selected using purpose sampling and preceded by key informant and focus groups interviews with actors along the sheep value chain. A questionnaire consisting of both open-ended and quantitative questions was used. The relationship between output price formation and clusters of determinants is a typical hedonic pricing framework, which is fitted using a backward stepwise econometric technique that is a widely used experimental tool to identify significant determinants. / South Africa

Residents of informal settlements (slums) are vulnerable to various disturbances; e.g. diseases spreading and fluctuations in food prices and local access to credits. The lack of credits derives from the continuous outflow of money from communities. This study examines a financial innovation called Sarafu-credits (SC) implemented in Kenyan informal settlements by the organization Grassroots Economics (GE). SC is a community currency (CC), more particularly vouchers only used within a network of micro-businesses, which aim to complement scarcity of conventional money. In addition, GE have initiated community activities, e.g. tree planting, trash collection, food gardens and cultural events, where residents can be paid in SC to improve the community socially and environmentally. This study examines the design and practice of SC, and the activities, using mainly semi-structured interviews with SC-network-members and GE key persons, to understand how a CC can contribute to sustainable livelihood. The concepts specified and general resilience are used to understand the links between SC and the various social-ecological disturbances facing slum-dwellers. The results suggest that SC-members who are actively trading with SC are able to increase their sales, savings and access to basic goods and services thanks to SC. The results also suggest the networks and community activities are strengthening social contacts in the neighbourhood, and constitute examples of how a CC can help finance management of local environmental problems, where SC paid for community services also support local trade. The identified challenges are related to local leadership, where trust, communication and consistency of rules are lacking. In one of the networks, the confidence in the usefulness of the currency is lacking, due to these challenges. GE have experimented with different designs where one successful innovation is the ability to exchange SC to conventional money at certain occasions, which seem to strengthen the confidence in SC.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / This study focuses on the contribution of community gardens to livelihoods of participants. It was carried out among 7 community gardens in Mudavula village in Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The village is located in Vhembe District. The aim of this study was to assess the technical efficiency and the contribution of community gardens to the livelihoods of participants at Mudavula Village. The objectives of the study were to determine the contribution of community gardens to food security and the livelihood of Mudavula community gardens’ participants using per capita production to determine the technical efficiency of the community gardens in the village and to identify sources of improvement of the contribution of the gardens towards food security and livelihoods. The findings from the descriptive and quantitative test revealed positive and negative relationship between variables and how the constraints affect their livelihood. The results shows that there is no relationship between gender and years of education, years of education and age, family size and age, employment and gender. The estimate of technical efficiency for the irrigated crops suffers more from omitted variable bias (OVB) than the rainfed equation. The study reveals that community gardens have positive impact to the livelihood of Mudavula villagers. It is therefore recommended that the Department of Agriculture capacitate farmers through their local extension officers to help empower them and equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge. Key Words: community gardens, livelihood, technical efficiency, Mudavula

MSCAGR (Agricultural Economics) / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness / See the attached abstract below

MSCAGR (Agricultural Economics) / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness / See the attached abstract below

No description available.

The principal aim of the study was to investigate the extent and under which conditions does local-level trade in Adansonia digitata, Ziziphus spina-christi and Balanites aegyptiaca fruits contribute to rural development- poverty alleviation- in Rashad of Nuba Mountains, Sudan. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select the 221 household collectors and 62 household traders in 2008/2009. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through several methods including interviews, household survey, market surveys, direct observations, and through literature review. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze the production-to-consumption system (PCS) of the three products and to assess their contribution to household income and expenditure. The results indicate that the contribution to total household‟s income was 51%, 42% and 26% for A. digitata, Z. spina-christi and B. aegyptiaca fruits, respectively. The A. digitata fruits case study represents accumulative and subsistence livelihood strategies; while Z. spina-christi and B. aegyptiaca fruits case studies represent a subsistence livelihood strategy for the households. The results also show that the financial returns from local-level trade in the selected NTFPs were negatively affected by different factors related to products markets, base resource, participants‟ attributes, and the political environment under which the products are traded. The study concluded that any assumption regarding the potential of the NTFPs case studies to affect rural development positively depends on the role of the product in financial capital creation and the related accumulative strategy. Thus, attention paid to not assume that all NTFPs have a potential for rural development- push people out of poverty. To promote the local-level trade in the studied NTFPs and influence future direction of their financial returns toward accumulative strategy, interventions and supports (e.g. access to microfinance, capacity building and organization of the actors, market information and resource management) are important. / Das Hauptziel der Studie bestand darin zu untersuchen, in welchem Maße und unter welchen Bedingungen der Handel mit Früchten von Adansonia digitata, Ziziphus spina-christi und Balanites aegyptiaca zur Armutsbekämpfung in Rashad im Gebirge Nuba Mountains, Sudan beiträgt. Das zielgerichtete Probenahmeverfahren wurde eingesetzt, um 221 Sammler und 62 Händler von Haushalten im Zeitraum 2008/2009 auszuwählen. Quantitative und qualitative Daten wurden durch mehrere Methoden erhoben, die Interviews, Haushaltserhebungen, direkte Beobachtungen sowie Literaturanalysen umfassen. Sowohl quantitative als auch qualitative Methoden kamen zum Einsatz, um das System von der Produktion zur Konsumption der drei Produkte zu analysieren und deren Beitrag zu den Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Haushalte zu beurteilen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Beitrag zum Haushaltsgesamteinkommen 51%, 42% bzw. 26% für A. digitata, Z. spina-christi bzw. B. aegyptiaca Früchte betrug. Die A. digitata Früchte-Fallstudie zeigt akkumulations- und eigenbedarfsorientierte Lebensunterhalts- und Erwerbsstrategien; während die Fallstudien zu den Früchten von Z. spina-christi und B. aegyptiaca eine Eigenbedarfs-Lebensunterhaltsstrategie für die Haushalte darstellen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen auch, dass die finanzielle Rendite vom Handel auf lokaler Ebene mit ausgewählten NTFP„s (Nichtholzprodukten) durch verschiedene Faktoren negativ beeinflusst wurde, die in Beziehung stehen mit den Märkten für die Erzeugnisse, mit der Ressource Baum, den Einstellungen der Teilnehmer und dem politischen Umfeld, in welchem die Produkte gehandelt wurden. Die Untersuchung legt den Schluss nahe, dass jede Annahme bezüglich des Potentials von NTFP-Fallstudien, die ländliche Entwicklung positiv zu beeinflussen, von der Rolle des Produkts bei der Bildung von Finanzkapital und der damit in Beziehung stehenden akkumulativen Strategie abhängig ist. Somit wird die Aufmerksamkeit darauf gelenkt, dass nicht angenommen werden kann, dass alle NTFP„s ein Potenzial für die ländliche Entwicklung haben, und somit die Menschen aus der Armut herausführen. Den Handel der untersuchten NTFP‟s auf lokaler Ebene zu fördern, und die künftige Richtung des finanziellen Gewinns hinsichtlich akkumulativer Strategie, Interventionen und Hilfeleistungen (z.B. Zugang zu Mikrofinanzen, Kapazitätsaufbau und Organisation von Akteuren, Marktinformationen und Ressourcenmanagement) zu beeinflussen, ist bedeutsam.