Rural economic growth and small-scale poultry production : the economic and technical constraints.
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Date
2002
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Abstract
Small-scale commercial poultry enterprises are often used in development projects
to (a) improve food self-sufficiency, and (b) to generate income. The analysis of
survey data gathered from the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal shows that the majority
of small-scale poultry producers come from previously disadvantaged communities
and have significantly lower enterprise growth rates than larger producers. Principal
Component Analysis is used to determine underlying "dimensions" of the main
technical poultry production parameters, which with the aid of a t-test indicate that
management practices and equipment use are significantly different for small-scale
and larger producers but that feed utilisation and disease reduction practices are
similar. The results of a block-recursive regression analysis indicate that enterprise
growth rate is constrained by poor access to credit, high transaction costs and
unreliable local markets. Using growth linkage concepts it was found that smallscale
poultry enterprises have the potential to initiate economic growth by drawing
under-utilised resources such as labour into production when their products are
"exported". The impact of the subsequent multiplier effect is strongest in the nontradable,
non-agricultural sector. To enhance this multiplier through increased rural
economic growth government policies should focus on reducing transaction costs
by improving education and physical infrastructure, sponsoring training and
assisting with mentoring services. Facilitating the development of appropriate
business institutions capable of managing co-owned resources is particularly
important as well as legal and fmancial management instruction. Economic growth
also requires a stable, equitable and well-adapted institutional environment where
the potential threat of a functional and affordable conflict resolution mechanism is
crucial to discourage opportunistic behaviour. Many disputes associated with
poultry production in KwaZulu-Natal currently remain unresolved because legal
court action is prohibitively expensive and legal uncertainty arises where informal
tribal authorities administer conflicts. Setting up small-claims courts is one option
of correcting these inefficiencies; the desired effect would be to strengthen property
rights, reduce transaction costs and promote economic growth. Poultry has
established itself as an appropriate vehicle to stimulate economic growth in rural
KwaZulu-Natal and its impact is expected to be greater if growth constraints are
alleviated for a large number of small enterprises rather than encouraging a few
larger enterprises to grow bigger.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.
Keywords
Poultry--Economic aspects--KwaZulu-Natal., Poultry--KwaZulu-Natal., Farms, Small--KwaZulu-Natal., Rural development--KwaZulu-Natal., Theses--Agricultural economics.