Access to financial services from financial institutions has often proved to be one of the major constraints to rural and smallholder agricultural development in Zimbabwe. However, the ICT revolution across the world leading to the development of branchless banking options has brought new financial inclusion opportunities in the rural areas. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of branchless banking in smallholder agriculture through investigating the user patterns and adoption rate of mobile banking by rural farmers in Zimbabwe. Zvimba District was used as the case study while mobile banking was the branchless banking option investigated. The study also sought to investigate the barriers to adoption of mobile banking, in addition to laying out the difference between traditional banking channels and mobile banking. A survey through a structured interview with rural smallholder farmers was the main means of data collection. The data collected was then used to quantify the adoption of mobile banking, the barriers to adoption, and the alternative financial service providers used in rural areas, making it possible to draw conclusions for the purposes of policy formulation. The findings from the study revealed a high rate of adoption of mobile banking among the rural people. According to the study, even though mobile banking was cheaper and more accessible, traditional banking channels were still cited as being an important need for rural people. The significant factors investigated as creating barriers to adoption of mobile banking included age, education, income, marital status and farming experience, while factors such as gender and farm size proved to be insignificant. In light of the findings, it was recommended that besides transactional uses, branchless banking should be further developed and enhanced to provide other services such as insurance services and credit needed by smallholder farmers. Furthermore, in order to enhance customer uptake, mobile network operators (MNOs) were recommended to consider a segmentation approach when extending services to appropriate segments in rural areas. / Dissertation (MInst (Agrar))--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MInst (Agrar) / Unrestricted

MRDV / Institute for Rural Development / See the attached abstract below

Land reform is important as it serves as a means to redress the imbalances created by apartheid. Evidence revealed that the land reform programme in South Africa has not been fully effective. This is partly because of lack of focus on the post-settlement support by Government or other interested stakeholders such as the private sectors, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) as well as government entities. Lack of skills amongst land reform beneficiaries is one of the critical elements identified to be problematic in South Africa and leads to failure of these emerging farmers. The South African government has introduced programmes, such as the Recapitalization and Development Programme (RECAP), the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP), and the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP), to address the issues of post-settlement support. Skills transfer to land reform beneficiaries was one of the issues that RECAP tried to address. The Department of Agriculture introduced extension services to the land reform beneficiaries as a means to transfer skills to land reform beneficiaries. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform also played its part through RECAP by introducing strategic interventions (strategic partners and mentors) to ensure that necessary skills are transferred to farmers. Other than government departments, NGOs, commodity organisations, and private sectors have been participating in ensuring that the skills of the land reform beneficiaries are developed. Despite this, evidence shows that the efforts made by both government and other involved stakeholders are not really effective in all the provinces across South Africa. The main objective of this study was to identify an appropriate skills transfer model for land reform beneficiaries in South Africa. Successful models that exist in Brazil, Kenya and China, were studied to identify and propose a skills transfer model that could best suit South Africa. In addition, the study used data and information from secondary sources such as government, NGOs, private sector, and reviewed existing literature on issues around skills transfer to emerging farmers and land reform beneficiaries. A comparative analysis was done on the existing skills transfer models from the three countries and South Africa. The analysis revealed certain common characteristics in the skills transfer models that exist in China, Kenya and Brazil, and also revealed how these models differ from the existing models in South Africa, thereafter distinguishing the success of these models from the failures. Over and above the most-used and successful model in the three countries, is the pluralistic type of model that involves working together of government, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector. What is much more appealing with this latter model is the fact that it takes into account the participatory, bottom–up approach, where farmers are engaged in whatever skills needs that have to be transferred to them. Literature revealed that the differences between the models that exist in South Africa relate to the involvement of research in skills transfer, unclear policies on skills transfer. The policies are not clear in explaining the institutional arrangements, roles and responsibilities of the different parties that have the ability to assist farmers or transfer skill and the monitoring and evaluation framework of skills transfer. The pluralistic approach, if well designed and taking into all aspects mentioned above, could be very effective for South African land reform beneficiaries. / Dissertation (MAgric (Rural Development))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MAgric (Rural Development) / Unrestricted

About seventy-seven percent of Zambia’s citizens who are engaged in primary activity in the agriculture sector are poor (Economies, 2017). One of the ways in which the poverty levels can be reduced is by lessening constraints of access to finance in agriculture sector. The implications of the low access to credit in the agriculture sector is reduced productivity, high food insecurity and perpetual poverty particularly in Zambia’s rural areas. Most of the studies conducted focused on identifying factors which limit participation in agriculture finance from the bank’s perspective and not farmers. Therefore, this study sought to fill the gap and assess variables directly related to smallholder farmers access to finance. It further examines the dynamism of access to finance depending on location, gender and transport infrastructure. The data employed in the study was obtained from a survey conducted in 2013 by IAPRI and UNZA with a sample size of 1,231 households in six districts of Zambia. Agricultural credit for small holder farmers (SHFs) in rural areas is mostly provided in the form of cash or in kind through supply of inputs to these SHFs. This data was modeled based on the logistic regression. The results showed that 14.1% of the SHFs had access to finance. Among these farmers only 13% were female. In addition, secondary education, access to finance information, farm size, access to collateral and distance between the location of the farmer and the financial services, were significant factors in determining access to credit. A recommendation proposed to policy makers based on results presented include sensitization on various finance facilities available to rural farmers so that they are aware and can make necessary efforts to access the finance. Rural education is directly related to access to finance, therefore government should promote education for its citizens. Lack of collateral has been identified as a factor that gravely hinders access levels by most. Government should implement standardized policies that ensure availability of credit to farmers with little or no collateral. In conclusion, improved credit permeation in agriculture sector promotes sustainable and inclusive growth in Zambia and will eventually eradicate absolute poverty.

Agriculture is the single most important sector in Malawi due to its contribution to the economy ranging from employment creation, contribution to GDP growth to source of foreign exchange earnings. These significant contributions have necessitated the Government of Malawi to develop strategies and policies such as the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP), whose main aim is to increase household incomes and reduce food insecurity and ultimately reduce poverty. It is nine years since the introduction of FISP but its results remain mixed. Using the 2009/10 Integrated Household Survey Phase 3 (IHS3) dataset, a logistic regression in a multivariate data analysis approach was used to investigate the impact of FISP on income levels and food security of rural smallholder farmers in Malawi. The analysis showed that about 82 percent of smallholder farmers live in rural areas, about 75 percent of them were males, 71 percent were married, 70 percent did not go to school and 69 percent benefited from FISP. In farming, 68 percent of these smallholder farmers had less than 1 hectare of farms, 70 percent of them had labour force of less than 5 people, 51 percent of them harvest less than 5 bags of 50kgs of maize of which 92 percent sell most of their harvested maize and 89 percent of them receive less than MK5, 000 from sales. In addition, about 99 percent of these smallholder farmers were food insecure as they save less than 1 bag of 50kgs after harvest. Only 1 percent of these smallholder farmers receive remittances and 21 percent had other income generating activities (IGAs). Demographic and socio-economic factors have no impact on these farmers capability to increase income levels and enhance their food security. There is also no statistically significant difference between FISP beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in terms of capabilities of increasing incomes and enhancing food security. It is, therefore, concluded that FISP had no significant impact on the abilities of these smallholder farmers to increase their incomes and enhancing their food security. Hence, FISP did not prove to be the best food security and poverty alleviation tool in Malawi.

Farmer support programmes are aimed at assisting in unlocking barriers faced by smallholder farmers. These programmes were implemented many years ago by the public and private sector. However, research continues to show that the increase in the number of these initiatives and in budgets/expenditures have not equally translated into an increase in the number of smallholder farmers advancing to commercial status. Therefore, this evaluation research is focused on assessing the implementation progress of a farmer support programme being implemented in Jozini, KwaZulu-Natal. The aim is to assess whether or not the programme is implemented according to the theory of change and to assess the likelihood of the programme achieving its intended outcomes. Both the quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied to collect and analyse data. Quantitative data was made up of project data and qualitative data was obtained through conducting in-depth interviews with farmers currently participating in the programme. Findings from this paper are expected to add to the existing body of knowledge in terms of strengthening and improving the design of farmer support programmes; to emphasise the importance of conducting implementation evaluations to assess programme performance early in implementation; to better understand what is working or not during implementation; and to understand why this is so.

No description available.

Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The availability of water for irrigation purposes is becoming a serious concern for smallholder famers in the former homeland areas of South Africa. Not only because of global weather change and the occurrence of more erratic weather events, but also due to competition for fresh water between the agricultural, industrial and domestic sectors (Hamdy et al., 2003). Food production increases in smallholder agriculture is seen as a possible solution to the food security challenges in the rural areas of the Limpopo Province (Altman et al., 2009). Smallholder farmers in Giyani mostly use traditional furrow irrigation systems and their farm crop productivity remains very low, compared to commercial farms in the same area. The objective of this study is to utilize and test various innovation technologies aimed at increasing Water Productivity (WP) in order to facilitate better irrigation management of the available water resources. The study was conducted on two farms, Zava Cooperative Garden and Mzilela Cooperative Garden, in the rural areas of Giyani over a two year period from 2012-2013. This study seeks to achieve the objective in three distinct ways. Firstly, the use of NIR technology is used to evaluate the prediction ability of soil chemical parameters for fertilizer requirement calculations. Secondly, WP trials were conducted on smallholder tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) production for three consecutive seasons, evaluating their current tomato crop production systems and also testing new innovations for WP increases. Thirdly, applying the MonQI methodology, inputs and outputs of all crop production sites were done to monitor the cropping systems throughout the period of the research. The results from this study indicate the importance of applying new innovations amongst smallholder production systems. Important findings from the NIR technologies indicated that this innovation can improve soil nutrient management in a more affordable, user friendly manner. The results showed that good prediction models were obtained for pH (KCl), electrical conductivity (EC), P, K, Mg, Na and CEC, with R2 and RPD values larger than 0.60 and 1.4 respectively. The prediction of exchangeable Ca was less successful with a R2 value of 0.43. Results from the WP trials suggest that drip irrigation performed better than furrow irrigation in terms of yield and WP. Yield and WP were very low for all treatments, being below 32 t/ha and 5.2 kg/m-3 respectively. Improved management practices, such as soil nutrient management and mulching were introduced in the 2nd and 3rd seasons of tomato trials in order to increase WP at field level at Mzilela farm. Results showed tomato yield increased from an average of 26.5 t/ha to 120.9 t/ha and WP increases from 4.61kg/m-3 to 17.69 kg/m-3. Deep drainage of water out of the rootzone decreased with better irrigation management. The results from the monitoring of inputs and output of their cropping systems revealed that smallholder farmers, using traditional farming practices, yielded very low and mostly below 5 t/ha for all crops. Some crops were totally lost due to hail and heat-waves. NPK balances for conventional cropping by the smallholder farmers at Mzilela was in the range of 0 to -70 kg/ha. The tomato production fertilized treatment of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd WP trials, showed positive nutrient balance results for P and K in the range of 80 to 140 kg/ha. N balances were mostly negative for all plots. NFI was R2768 and R4740 for season 1 and 3 respectively, while the 2nd season results showed a loss of - R5176. With the improved yield from the WP trial sites, and the fruits being sold to the Spar, the NFI increased to R42486 in the final season. The study concludes that great improvements in yield, WP and NFI are attainable and sustainable amongst smallholder farmers in the Giyani area. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die beskikbaarheid van water hulpbronne vir besproeiings doeleindes onder kleinskaalse boere in die voormalige tuislande is besig om ernstige bekommernisse te wek. Nie net as gevolg van globale weer veranderinge en meer gereelde ekstreme weer toestande nie, maar ook as gevolg van die kompetisie tussen die landbou, industriële en huishoudelike sektore vir water gebruike (Hamdy et al., 2003). Verhoogde voedsel produksie onder die kleinskaalse landbou sektor word gesien as moontlike oplossing vir die voedsel sekuriteit uitdagings in die platteland areas van die Limpopo Provinsie in Suid-Afrika (Altman et al., 2009). Kleinskaalse boere in Giyani gebruik meestal tradisionele voor-besproeiings stelsels en hul produktiwiteit bly steeds baie laag wanneer dit met kommersiële boerderye vergelyk word. Die hoofdoel van hierdie studie is om Water Produktiwiteit (WP) te bestudeer en verskeie innovasie tegnologieë te toets om beter besproeiing bestuur van kosbare water bronne te fasiliteer. Die studie was uitgevoer op twee plase, naamlik Zava Koöperatiewe Tuin en Mzilela Koöperatiewe Tuin, wat in die plattelandse areas van Giyani geleë is en die studie is gedoen oor ‘n periode van twee jaar vanaf 2012 tot 2013. Om hierdie doelwit te bereik was die navorsing in drie eenhede uitgevoer. Eerstens sal Naby-Infra Rooi (NIR) tegnologie gebruik word om die voorspelling vermoë van grond chemiese eienskappe te toets vir meer effektiewe grond voedingstof bestuur deur kleinboere. Tweedens sal WP proewe uitgevoer word op kleinskaalse tamatie (Solanum lycopersicum) produksie. Die huidige tamatie gewasproduksie stelsels was getoets om die WP statusse te evalueer van hul tradisionele bestuurs praktyke van beide drip- en voorbesproeiings stelsels. Laastens, is insette en uitsette van die kleinboere se produksie stelsels met die MonQI metodologie bestudeer om die huidige produksie sisteme te evalueer, sowel as die WP proef persele, deur opbrengs, grond voedingstof balanse en netto plaas inkomste (NPI) te moniteer en te bereken vir 4 half jaar seisoene gedurende die navorsings periode. Die resultate van die navorsing voer aan dat die gebruik van innovasie tegnologieë onder kleinskaalse boerderystelsels ontsettend belangrik is vir verbeterde produksie. Hoofbevindings van die NIR tegnologie dui dat meer doeltreffende grond voedingstof bestuur moontlik is en wat goedkoper en meer gebruikersvriendelik is vir kleinboere. Hierdie tegniek het goeie voorspelbaarheid-modelle getoon vir pH (KCl), Elektriese Geleiding (EG), P, K, Mg, Na en katioon uitruilings kapasiteit (KUK) met R2 en RPD waardes hoër as 0.60 en 1.4 onderskeidelik. Die voorspelbaarheid van Ca was minder suksesvol met ‘n R2 waarde van 0.43. Die resultate van die WP toetse wys dat drip besproeiing beter as voorbesproeiing presteer het in terme van opbrengs en WP. Opbrengs en WP was baie laag vir alle behandelings van seisoen 1, met waardes laer as 32 t/ha en 5.2 kg/m-3 onderskeidelik. Verbeterde bestuurspraktyke, soos grond voedingstof bestuur asook die gebruik van ‘n deklaag, was in die 2de en 3rde seisoen toegepas om opbrengs en WP te verhoog op plaasskaal op Mziela plaas. Resultate het gewys dat opbrengs verhoog het van ‘n gemiddelde van 26.5 t/ha tot 120.9 t/ha en WP verhoging van 4.61 kg/m-3 tot 17.69 kg/m-3. In terme van die insette en uitsette van die produksie sisteme het opbrengste van alle gewasse, wat nog van tradisionele metodes gebruik, laer as 5 t/ha getoon. Soms van die totale oeste verloor deur hael of hittegolwe. Die NPK balanse vir die gewasverbouing met konvensionele kleinboer metodes was in die orde van 0 tot -70 kg/ha. Die kunsmis behandelings van die tamatie proewe van die 1ste, 2de en 3rde WP seisoene het positiewe balanse getoon vir P en K in die orde van 80 tot 140 kg/ha. Die N balanse was meestal negatief vir alle verbouings persele. Die NPI was R2768 en R4740 vir seisoen 1 en 3 onderskeidelik, terwyl die 2de seisoen verlies van -R5176 getoon het. Die verbeteringe in opbrengs met die WP proewe en met die verkoop van die tamaties aan die Spar was die NPI vir die 4de seisoen R42486. Die studie sluit dat daar groot moontlikehede is vir verhoging in opbrengs, WP en NPI onder kleinboere in die Giyani area.

No description available.

No description available.