IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v23y2021i6d10.1007_s10668-020-00973-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Drivers of low-input farmers’ perceptions of sustainable ruminant farming practices in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Tawanda Marandure

    (Stellenbosch University
    Coventry University)

  • James Bennett

    (Coventry University)

  • Kennedy Dzama

    (Stellenbosch University)

  • Godswill Makombe

    (University of Pretoria)

  • Cletos Mapiye

    (Stellenbosch University)

Abstract

Resolution of the existing disconnect between experts and farmers’ insights on sustainable farming requires understanding of the key factors driving farmers’ perceptions on the concept. Interviews were conducted with 160 low-input farmers to evaluate the drivers of their perceptions of sustainable ruminant farming practices in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. It was found that farmers had negative perceptions on rangeland, breeding, livestock security and marketing management practices and positive perceptions on socio-cultural, family health and education practices. The major factors that influenced farmers’ perceptions of sustainable ruminant farming practices include location, age, gender and employment status. Males farming full-time in peri-urban areas were more likely to perceive decreases (p ≤ 0.05) while the young farmers had greater probability to perceive increases (p ≤ 0.05) in ecologically related ruminant farming practices. Married, more educated males farming full-time in rural areas were more likely to perceive decreases (p ≤ 0.05) in economically related ruminant farming practices compared to their counterparts. Young males farming full-time had greater probability to perceive decreases (p ≤ 0.05), whereas rural farmers were more likely to perceive increases (p ≤ 0.05) in socially related ruminant farming practices. These key drivers of farmer’s perceptions could be used to develop context-specific indicators for sustainability assessment and synchronise experts and farmers insights on sustainable ruminant farming.

Suggested Citation

  • Tawanda Marandure & James Bennett & Kennedy Dzama & Godswill Makombe & Cletos Mapiye, 2021. "Drivers of low-input farmers’ perceptions of sustainable ruminant farming practices in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 8405-8432, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00973-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00973-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-00973-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-020-00973-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tittonell, Pablo, 2014. "Livelihood strategies, resilience and transformability in African agroecosystems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 3-14.
    2. F. Füsun Tatlıdil & İsmet Boz & Hasan Tatlidil, 2009. "Farmers’ perception of sustainable agriculture and its determinants: a case study in Kahramanmaras province of Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 11(6), pages 1091-1106, December.
    3. J. C. Hadrich & J. J. Jackson, 2014. "Livestock emissions regulation with unknown damages and strategic technology adoption," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(35), pages 4309-4317, December.
    4. Assem Abu Hatab & Maria Eduarda Rigo Cavinato & Carl Johan Lagerkvist, 2019. "Urbanization, livestock systems and food security in developing countries: A systematic review of the literature," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(2), pages 279-299, April.
    5. Franco, Juan Agustín & Gaspar, Paula & Mesias, Francisco Javier, 2012. "Economic analysis of scenarios for the sustainability of extensive livestock farming in Spain under the CAP," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 120-129.
    6. Nakano, Yuko & Tsusaka, Takuji W. & Aida, Takeshi & Pede, Valerien O., 2018. "Is farmer-to-farmer extension effective? The impact of training on technology adoption and rice farming productivity in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 336-351.
    7. Latruffe, Laure & Diazabakana, Ambre & Bockstaller, Christian & Desjeux, Yann & Finn, John & Kelly, Edel & Ryan, Mary & Uthes, Sandra, 2016. "Measurement of sustainability in agriculture: a review of indicators," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 118(3), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Mandarino, Raphael Amazonas & Barbosa, Fabiano Alvim & Lopes, Luciano Bastos & Telles, Vando & Florence, Eduardo de Azevedo Sondré & Bicalho, Filipe Lage, 2019. "Evaluation of good agricultural practices and sustaintability indicators in livestock systems under tropical conditions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 32-38.
    9. Annelin Molotsi & Bekezela Dube & Simon Oosting & Tawanda Marandure & Cletos Mapiye & Schalk Cloete & Kennedy Dzama, 2017. "Genetic Traits of Relevance to Sustainability of Smallholder Sheep Farming Systems in South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-18, July.
    10. Thomas K. Rudel & Oh-Jung Kwon & Birthe K. Paul & Maryline Boval & Idupulapati M. Rao & Diana Burbano & Megan McGroddy & Amy M. Lerner & Douglas White & Mario Cuchillo & Manuel Luna & Michael Peters, 2016. "Do Smallholder, Mixed Crop-Livestock Livelihoods Encourage Sustainable Agricultural Practices? A Meta-Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, February.
    11. Anna Gaviglio & Mattia Bertocchi & Maria Elena Marescotti & Eugenio Demartini & Alberto Pirani, 2016. "The social pillar of sustainability: a quantitative approach at the farm level," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, December.
    12. Ngufor L. Atanga & Anna C. Treydte & Regina Birner, 2013. "Assessing the Sustainability of Different Small-Scale Livestock Production Systems in the Afar Region, Ethiopia," Land, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-30, December.
    13. Moraine, Marc & Grimaldi, Juliette & Murgue, Clément & Duru, Michel & Therond, Olivier, 2016. "Co-design and assessment of cropping systems for developing crop-livestock integration at the territory level," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 87-97.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marandure, Tawanda & Dzama, Kennedy & Bennett, James & Makombe, Godswill & Mapiye, Cletos, 2020. "Application of system dynamics modelling in evaluating sustainability of low-input ruminant farming systems in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 438(C).
    2. Théodore Nikiema & Eugène C. Ezin & Sylvain Kpenavoun Chogou, 2023. "Bibliometric Analysis of the State of Research on Agroecology Adoption and Methods Used for Its Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-18, November.
    3. Vivek Arulnathan & Mohammad Davoud Heidari & Maurice Doyon & Eric P. H. Li & Nathan Pelletier, 2022. "Economic Indicators for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: Going beyond Life Cycle Costing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-27, December.
    4. Hans Vrolijk & Krijn Poppe, 2021. "Cost of Extending the Farm Accountancy Data Network to the Farm Sustainability Data Network: Empirical Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-13, July.
    5. Agnieszka Wojewódzka-Wiewiórska & Anna Kłoczko-Gajewska & Piotr Sulewski, 2019. "Between the Social and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability in Rural Areas—In Search of Farmers’ Quality of Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, December.
    6. Islam, Md. Mofakkarul & Sarker, Md. Asaduzzaman & Al Mamun, Md. Abdullah & Mamun-ur-Rashid, Md. & Roy, Debashis, 2021. "Stepping Up versus Stepping Out: On the outcomes and drivers of two alternative climate change adaptation strategies of smallholders," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    7. Lipper, Leslie & Cavatassi, Romina & Symons, Ricci & Gordes, Alashiya & Page, Oliver, 2022. "IFAD Research Series 85: Financing climate adaptation and resilient agricultural livelihoods," IFAD Research Series 322020, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    8. Feng, Rundong & Wang, Kaiyong, 2022. "The direct and lag effects of administrative division adjustment on urban expansion patterns in Chinese mega-urban agglomerations," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Li, Fuduo & Zhang, Kangjie & Ren, Jing & Yin, Changbin & Zhang, Yang & Nie, Jun, 2021. "Driving mechanism for farmers to adopt improved agricultural systems in China: The case of rice-green manure crops rotation system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    10. Shamsheer Haq & Ismet Boz, 2020. "Measuring environmental, economic, and social sustainability index of tea farms in Rize Province, Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 2545-2567, March.
    11. Lapierre, Margaux & Le Velly, Gwenolé & Bougherara, Douadia & Préget, Raphaële & Sauquet, Alexandre, 2023. "Designing agri-environmental schemes to cope with uncertainty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    12. Dai, Xuhuan & Li, Bo & Zheng, Hua & Yang, Yanzheng & Yang, Zihan & Peng, Chenchen, 2023. "Can sedentarization decrease the dependence of pastoral livelihoods on ecosystem services?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    13. Marta Guth & Katarzyna Smędzik-Ambroży & Bazyli Czyżewski & Sebastian Stępień, 2020. "The Economic Sustainability of Farms under Common Agricultural Policy in the European Union Countries," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-20, January.
    14. Robin Hogrefe & Sabine Bohnet-Joschko, 2023. "The Social Dimension of Corporate Sustainability: Review of an Evolving Research Field," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.
    15. Sèyi Fridaïus Ulrich Vanvanhossou & Luc Hippolyte Dossa & Sven König, 2021. "Sustainable Management of Animal Genetic Resources to Improve Low-Input Livestock Production: Insights into Local Beninese Cattle Populations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Andi Syah Putra & Guangji Tong & Didit Okta Pribadi, 2020. "Spatial Analysis of Socio-Economic Driving Factors of Food Expenditure Variation between Provinces in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    17. Lecegui, Antonio & Olaizola, Ana María & López-i-Gelats, Feliu & Varela, Elsa, 2022. "Implementing the livelihood resilience framework: An indicator-based model for assessing mountain pastoral farming systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    18. Li, Mo & Fu, Qiang & Singh, Vijay P. & Liu, Dong & Li, Jiang, 2020. "Optimization of sustainable bioenergy production considering energy-food-water-land nexus and livestock manure under uncertainty," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    19. Hernando Barreto Riaño & John Willmer Escobar & Rodrigo Linfati & Virna Ortiz-Araya, 2022. "Disciplinary Categorization of the Cattle Supply Chain—A Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-44, November.
    20. Stylianou, Andreas & Sdrali, Despina & Apostolopoulos, Constantinos D., 2020. "Capturing the diversity of Mediterranean farming systems prior to their sustainability assessment: The case of Cyprus," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00973-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.