Assessing the challenges faced by emerging farmers in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province.

Abstract

The South African New Growth Path of 2010, as well as the National Growth Plan of 2012, indicate that since the dawn of democracy, the government has recognised the essence of agriculture, especially smallholder farming, in its contribution towards poverty alleviation, employment creation and rural development. In the context of the above, this study investigated the reasons behind the failure of most emerging farmers, also known as smallholder farmers in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province of South Africa. In order to achieve this, the qualitative research approach was applied, in order to establish the emerging farmers’, as well as some officials’ opinions, views and perspectives regarding smallholder farming. A total of six smallholder farmers were purposively selected from the KZN farmers’ database, while four officials were purposively selected from organisations like the Department of Agriculture, Ithala Development Finance Corporation, eThekwini Municipality, to allow them to provide their insights into the challenges associated with smallholder farming. In-depth interviews were used to seek information from the smallholder farmers, as well as the officials who participated in study. The findings of the study indicated that among other things, smallholder farmers sustain their livelihoods through agricultural activities, some of them are aware of sustainable farming and practice it, while others know nothing about it, they face challenges which include lack of access to formal markets, lack of finance, lack of agricultural inputs like tractors and essentially, lack of access to information on sustainable farming. The farmers also indicated that the extension officers assigned to them are not effective as they do not offer them the kind of knowledge necessary for them to improve their agricultural practices. As part of recommendations, it was suggested that government support is imperative, if the sustainable development goals of food security, rural development, poverty reduction and unemployment reduction, are to be achieved.