Thesis ( M. Sc.((Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / Wildlife farming has become an important land use alternative, especially in most developing countries where there is an abundance of wildlife resources. In South Africa, integrated wildlife/livestock was mostly practiced by commercial farmers on a privately owned land but in recent years, potential for income generation in the industry has grown. Smallholder farmers are increasingly being assisted to explore practicing integrated wildlife/livestock on communal land after receiving land through restitution programme. The aim of the study was to examine costs and benefits associated with integrating livestock with wildlife in a smallholder agricultural context. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 71 respondents situated in Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality selected using multistage random sampling technique. Cost-benefit approach and weighted decision matrix were used for economic analysis and also to identify potential trade-offs. Furthermore, the study used descriptive statistical analysis to identify opportunities and challenges faced by farmers. Some of the livestock costs identified include feeds, vaccines and labour costs. Benefits of wildlife include income from trophy hunting and selling meat from wild animals. Cost-Benefit Ratio (CBR) as a tool of cost benefit analysis techniques, was used in order get 0.67 in livestock farming, this shows that the project may not be sustainable whereas that of wildlife farming was 1.13 which indicate that the project will yield positive outcome for community involved. There are trade-offs that farmers will have to consider when shifting towards integrated wildlife/livestock such as reduced livestock benefits and increased wildlife benefits. Livestock diseases, stock theft and others are the identified challenges associated with integrated wildlife/livestock. Descriptive results indicated that 40% of livestock farmers mentioned that they are strongly affected by stock theft and disease transmission. The identified opportunities of integrated wildlife/livestock were business and job creation for rural households. Given the findings, the study therefore, recommends that government and private sector should assist farmers with training in wildlife farming so that they can be competitive in commercial wildlife farming. Funds should be made available for setting up infrastructure suited for wildlife land uses. / Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF)

Livestock production is the primary financial resource for most farmers in Mpumalanga province. Although commercial farmers require necessary equipment and technology to maximise their production and profit, but emerging small-scale farmers in the province face many challenges which have hindered their efforts to improve their livelihood, besides intervening in the procedure of commercialisation. Therefore, this study investigates the socioeconomic characteristics of the livestock farmers in the province, the determinants of market access and those influencing marketing inefficiency, with a view to developing policy recommendations. Structured questionnaire was administered to 300 farmers in order to capture information on market access and factors that could influence marketing inefficiency. Descriptive statistics was utilised regarding basic characteristics of the households. A logit regression model was used to analyse market access (sale of livestock through formal markets) using STATA. Marketing inefficiency was computed as the reciprocal of marketing efficiency which was calculated using Shepherd formula, while the two stage Least Square regression was applied for factors influencing marketing inefficiency after identifying market access endogenous variable. The study’s extrapolations indicated that 7 variables were consequential at 1% and 5% significance level with market access, namely transport ownership, transport cost, market price information, advertisement, farmers’ perception, marketing channel used and municipality. In addition, the results of the two stage least square model indicated that only 3 variables had remarkable significance with regard to marketing inefficiency. These are market access, livestock composition and infrastructure. The findings of the study evidenced that to reduce marketing inefficiency, then it is paramount to enable the easy dissemination of information and improving infrastructure so as to give small-scale farmers easy access to the markets. Consequently, addressing marketing constraints will provide an insight that will allow development of strategies to deal with those problems correctly and more efficiently. The study recommended that focus should be centred on addressing the constraints existing in livestock marketing system to enhance access to markets by encouraging youth participation in agricultural activities and providing training programmes and easy access for marketing related information. Also, infrastructure deserves to be given more attention by renovating the marketing facilities especially road networks in rural areas. In addition, extension officers and veterinary services are to provide help and support in preventing infections and diseases in order to minimise the losses. / Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology / M. Sc. (Agriculture)

In Graaff-Reinet, domestic livestock farming and springbuck ranching are similar in that they both rely on the rangeland for their sustainability. However, as a consequence of repeated monotonous domestic livestock farming, resulting in compromised biological productivity and diversity, the rangelands have disintegrated. This, unfortunately, has placed the future sustainability of these rangelands and the livelihoods of the local people in an indeterminate state. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in springbuck ranching for meat production as an alternative to domestic livestock farming in the area following (a) fears of worsening environmental challenges; (b) declining profitability in commercial domestic livestock farming and; (c) growing calls for the sustainable use of these rangelands for the benefit of future generations. The springbuck has emerged as a credible alternative to utilising the rangelands - as opposed to sheep - because of its promise to addressing the above challenges. This is in an attempt to tap into the multitude of benefits that the springbuck possesses (by virtue of being part of the natural capital of the area) that have a potential towards restoring ecological integrity by extenuating some of the detrimental effects of sheep farming on the rangelands and presenting opportunities for diversifying incomes. Yet, despite the general increase in interest, a resistance towards the uptake of springbuck ranching for meat production exists. The main contention is that springbuck meat production cannot out-perform the economic returns of wool sheep farming. This study attempts to address these concerns by investigating the profitability and economic sustainability of converting a sheep farm into a springbuck ranch in Graaff-Reinet. The study uses stochastic simulation to estimate the probability distribution of some key output variables, namely: net cash income, ending cash balance, real net worth and the net present value (NPV) in evaluating the profitability of converting a 5 000ha sheep-dominated farm into a springbuck-dominated ranch under three alternative scenarios. The use of stochastic simulation allows for the incorporation of downside risk associated with the production and marketing of wool, mutton and springbuck meat. The study uses stochastic prices and yields to calculate net returns variability. Incorporating scenario analysis helped to evaluate how alternative wool sheep-dominated and springbuck-dominated combinations would perform based on the probable outcomes of different assumptions in the various scenarios. By applying stochastic efficiency with respect to a function (SERF) criterion to the simulated NPVs, this study compares the profitability of alternative scenarios based on various risk aversion coefficients. The study finds that converting a 5 000ha wool sheep dominated farm into a springbuck dominated ranch could potentially be a more profitable investment than wool sheep farming over a 15 year planning horizon, in Graaff-Reinet. The SERF results indicate that for all scenarios tested, the best strategy of converting a wool sheep dominated farm into a springbuck ranch would be one which comprise a combination of 70% springbuck, 20% mutton and 10% wool production as the likely profitable enterprise mix. Using economic sustainability analysis, the study reveals that because of low costs in springbuck ranching, springbuck meat production enterprises are most likely to be more financially sustainable than wool sheep-dominated enterprises. This suggests that rangeland owners may be better off converting their wool sheep-dominated farms into springbuck-dominated ranches. Thus, as the call for more environmentally benign rangeland utilising economic-ecological systems intensifies, rangeland owners in the Eastern Cape Karoo have a practicable option. At the very least, there exists an option to broaden their incomes whilst promoting ecological restoration with springbuck meat production.