For many poor rural South African communities, involvement in agriculture remains one
of their most secure livelihood strategies. For the majority of these people, indigenous
knowledge and the use of local materials, resources and skills is often the only asset they
possess. The Ezemvelo Farmers Organisation (EFO) from the community of Embo in
KwaZulu-Natal is one such group of rural people befitting this description. In the
absence of financial resources to purchase relatively expensive agricultural inputs,
accompanied by a lack of infrastructural development in their community, EFO farmers
have become organic farmers by default. EFO members produce mainly traditional
organic crops. However, little has been documented about the potential value of trade in
these products. The purpose of this study was to explore potential marketing
opportunities for traditional organic products through the mobilisation of indigenous
knowledge, skills, and natural resources to improve the livelihoods of EFO members.
A research team of three postgraduate students, each involved in his/her own independent
study, worked in collaboration to collect relevant research information. Five data
collection tools were used to collect this information. These were a household survey, a
sustainable livelihoods analysis, a forcefield analysis, a stakeholder analysis, and a
workshop. Research results showed that there are five stakeholders involved in EFO
activities, each with his/her own personal interests. EFO members mainly produce
amadumbe, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, which they market to a packhouse, the local
community, and to hawkers. Other crop varieties are produced for household
consumption and small quantities are sold to the local community and hawker markets.
Farmers obtained a slightly higher price for crops sold to the packhouse as compared to
the other two markets. The packhouse was the farmers' largest market for the 2002 season. However, the
packhouse market was unsustainable for farmers because of problems due to the delays in
payments for produce, the high quantities of crops that are rejected because they did not
meet the quality control standards of the packhouse, and problems due to the unreliability
of transport from Embo to the packhouse. The majority of EFO members' farms were also found to be unprofitable due to the high costs of inputs and losses to production.
Constraints such as a shortage of kraal manure for soil conditioning, unfenced properties,
a lack of water for irrigation, and the unavailability of a tractor for ploughing were found
to be contributing factors to the unprofitability of member farms. Recommendations for
improving marketing and profitability were that projects involving farmers should be
regularly evaluated, EFO members seek business management skills, direct contracting
agreements with their suppliers, explore value added products, and for Government to
play a role for rural enterprise development to take place. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/9383 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Ndokweni, Mimi Faith. |
| Contributors | Hendriks, Sheryl L., Modi, Albert Thembinkosi., Green, J. Maryann. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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