IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/pojard/355991.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agribusiness challenges to effectiveness of contract farming in commercialization of small-scale vegetable farmers in eastern Cape, south Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Khapayi, Musa
  • Niekerk, Pieter Van
  • Celliers, Phillip Retief

Abstract

The study investigated the key factors that influence small-scale vegetable farmers’ participation in contract farming arrangements. A sample of 70 small-scale vegetable farmers and 15 key informants of agribusiness firms involved in contract farming production of vegetables were selected in Amathole and Sarah Baartman (formerly Cacadu) district municipalities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were chosen as data collection tools to identify the factors that influence small-scale vegetable farmers’ participation in contract farming arrangements with agribusiness firms. The data was analyzed using open multi-stage coding with an inductive framework approach. Atlas.ti was used to sort and organize data. The findings indicated availability of farm assets, hydrological conditions, farming skills and distance of producer to the markets as key determinants of contract farming participation. The use of unmarketable cultivars, inappropriate agricultural practices and inconsistent supply in quality and quantity of vegetables were found to be bottlenecks to contract participation. The study recommends a more meaningful state support and incentives for agribusiness firms; otherwise, growth of small-scale farmers in contract farming is unlikely because of the financial implications for private sector companies.

Suggested Citation

  • Khapayi, Musa & Niekerk, Pieter Van & Celliers, Phillip Retief, 2018. "Agribusiness challenges to effectiveness of contract farming in commercialization of small-scale vegetable farmers in eastern Cape, south Africa," Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland, vol. 50(4), April.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:pojard:355991
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.355991
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/355991/files/AGRIBUSINESS%20CHALLENGES%20TO%20EFFECTIVENESS%20OF%20CONTRACT%20FARMING%20IN%20COMMERCIALIZATION%20OF%20SMALL-SCALE%20VEGETABLE%20FARMERS%20IN%20EASTERN%20CAPE%2C%20SOUTH%20AFRICA.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.355991?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Farm Management;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ags:pojard:355991. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.jard.edu.pl/en/main .

    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.