Smallholder agriculture contributes to poverty alleviation through food price reduction and employment creation. Smallholder farmers have the potential of creating employment because they are labour-intensive. Most small holder farmers in the Amathole District practices dual farming system i.e. crops and livestock production. However these farmers are faced by a number of constraints amongst these are land tenure security, lack of capital, drought, diseases, lack of access to markets and production inputs. The objectives of this study were: to investigate land tenure security impact on-farm investment and on-farm productivity by the smallholder farmers; to assess constraints encountered by the smallholder farmers, to identify factors influencing on-farm investment by the smallholder farmers and to identify factors influencing on-farm productivity by the smallholder farmers. Eighty smallholder farmers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentages) and regression analyses. Data was for coded and processed for analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results revealed that generally, the household demographic characteristics have an influence on the decision to investment in the farm thus on farm productivity. These included age, gender, marital status, educational level and household size of the smallholder farmers. However the findings revealed that smallholder farmers were not much concerned with the land tenure security of the land as they see themselves as owners of these lands. The reason being that they always had access to their land and there were no perceived tenure insecurity threats. The majority of the smallholder farmers were not worried that they might lose their land in the future as they felt that their land tenure was secured. Although, the majority of farmers had some sense of security they still preferred a freehold tenure system as form of land tenure security. This suggests that there was a sense of insecurity among some of the smallholder farmers caused by their current tenure forms. Majority (66%) of the farmers held their land under freehold whilst leasehold and communal hold farmers constituted 5 % and 29 % respectively. Even though majority had freehold tenure system, they could not use their land as collateral when required for funding from the lending institutions because the title deeds were not registered in their names but those of deceased family members. As a result the majority was constrained by lack of credit and had low income. Lack of cash suggests that the farmers have difficulties in purchasing farm of the survey suggest that the household demographics and socio-economic variables may have an influence on the on-farm investment and on-farm productivity by the smallholder farmers. Furthermore, besides the challenges with land tenure, there are other factors that are likely to influence on-farm investment and on-farm productivity. The results of the survey revealed that smallholder farmers were faced with lot of challenges. These included lack of access to markets, grazing land, credit, farm implements, productions inputs and irrigation water. In addition to this the smallholder farmers were faced with both crops and livestock production constraints. Crop production constraints included lack of access to labour, transport, capital, storage facilities, pests, diseases, lack of management skills and severe drought. Livestock production was constrained by diseases, theft, attack by wild animals, lack of fence in the camps, labour, vaccines, dipping facilities too far and severe drought. For both crop and livestock production diseases and drought were major concerns for smallholder farmers since they were dependent on rainfall for their farming activities. With regards to improvements and investment there was little or not much investment that has been made by the smallholder farmers. One of the reasons mentioned by the farmers as the main cause for little or no investments is the lack of capital to make such improvements or investments. The study also employed empirical analysis through employing on-farm investment and on-farm productivity models of the study on the factors influencing the on-farm investment and on-farm productivity by the smallholder farmers in the study area. In both models, the independent variables were tested for their significance and it was found that some variables were significant whilst others were not. With regards to the dependent variable on-farm investment, household socio-economic factors such as household size, educational levels and farm size, had a positive influence in on-farm investment and were also statistically significant. On the other side, factors such as land tenure security, age, gender, household income and access to markets did not have any influence and were not statistically significant. From the perspective of on-farm productivity variables such as farm size, access to credit and access to extension services had a positive influence. However, variables such as land tenure security, age, household income, educational levels, access to implements, were negatively influencing onfarm productivity by the smallholder farmers. Key words: Land tenure security, smallholder farmers, on-farm investment & on-farm productivity
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufh/vital:11230 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Zwelendaba, Vincent Vusumzi |
| Publisher | University of Fort Hare, Faculty of Science & Agriculture |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics) |
| Format | 254 pages, pdf |
| Rights | University of Fort Hare |
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