Improving agricultural performance through an understanding of environmental impacts at Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Ethekwini district.

Abstract

This study improves agricultural performance through an understanding of environmental impacts at Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in eThekwini district. The study described the three external environmental impacts, namely techno-economies which is a combination of technology and economy, the natural impacts, as well as the political impacts in the sector. Face-to-face semi-structured interview using non-random was used to gather data from five participants at the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in eThekwini district. Data was analysed using thematic analyses. The findings of the study were that technology and economic environments are the driving influences in agriculture and attention must be brought on such influences because they determine growth of this sector. Technology eased more imports into this country meanwhile there is not as much of comprehensive support for improved production and exportation by local farmers. It was also revealed that some major contributing impacts are scarcity of land to be used for farming, scarcity of water in major parts of the province, and the lack of updated knowledge, skills and skills development in agricultural sector. There is a need to promote agricultural activities to be regarded as priority by the country. That is, promotion of 60 percent local goods consumption before considering foreign products Agribusinesses together with trade activities needs to be encouraged by local investors.