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Review of South Africa's Small-scale Farming Entrepreneurial Constraints and Opportunities: A Rural Perspective

Abstract

The small-scale farming subsector is now seen as a critical player in the rural development drive and sustainable inclusive rural economic growth. This has found expression in the Agenda 2063, Zero Hunger Challenge and the National Development Plan 2030 for South Africa. However, for the small-scale farmers to play their role it is imperative that there is a clear understanding of the constraints they still face. Most previous studies have focused on assessing marketing, access to finance and capital and related production inhibiting constraints but few have focused on agronomic entrepreneurial constrictions. This study reviews agronomic entrepreneurial constrictions faced by small-scale farmers in South Africa. Agronomic constraints include lack of access to credit, strenuous climate change, lack of irrigation water among others have been discovered. Water constraints is however, regarded as a major constraint in rural areas and empirical studies have shown that the impacts can be very severe. Empirical interaction on a variety of constraints in rural agriculture revealed generalised evidence which, however, created loopholes in order to quantify the gist of the matter. Thus, the premise of the study is to clearly single out entrepreneurial constraints faced by small-scale farmers in Vhembe District of South Africa.

Mike Muzekenyi*, Jethro Zuwarimwe and Kilonzo Beata

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