Socio-economic factors influencing smallholder farmers agricultural infrastructure availability, accessibility and satisfaction: A case on North West province in South Africa

The study investigated the socio-economic factors contributing to smallholder farmers' availability, accessibility and satisfaction of agricultural infrastructure. Using cross sectional data from the North West Province of South Africa. One hundred and fifty smallholder farmers, were selected using the stratified sampling to group the farmers to those who had agricultural infrastructure and to those that did not have agricultural infrastructure. The data was coded, captured and analysed using STATA 14.0, the methods used to analyse the data were descriptive analyses and Tobit Regression Models. The results of the Tobit Regression Model showed, among other factors influencing availability of agricultural infrastructure, the following variables played a critical role; household members' assistance in farming enterprise; farm ownership; farm acquisition; farmer Occupation; member of farmer organisations; sources of labour and farming experience and agricultural production inputs. In terms of agricultural infrastructure accessibility, the following variables played a critical role; engage in non-farming activities; contact to extension services; farm ownership; farmer occupation; member of farmer organisations; sources of labour; farming experience and land tenure. In terms of satisfaction with agricultural infrastructure, among other factors influencing satisfaction with agricultural infrastructure, the following variables played a critical role; organisation for extension services; household members' assistance in farming enterprise; farmer receives government agricultural support; farm ownership; member of farmer organisations; farmer age; education level; marital status and gender. The results from the analysis were used to close the gap of knowledge on the impact of agricultural infrastructure, availability, accessibility and satisfaction on the productivity and agricultural income of smallholder farmers in the North West Province. Key words: Agricultural infrastructure, availability, accessibility, satisfaction, agricultural income, agricultural production.