Influence of institutional factors on smallholder farmers’ marketing channel choices - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 89

becomes difficult to invest on the farming land (Mbilase, pers. comm., 2007). In addition,
the emerging farmers need human development as they lack skills and knowledge, especially
on improved technology use.
5.4.2 Markets accessibility
In the Kat River Valley, marketing appears to be difficult amongst smallholder farmers, even
though successful farming has been pursued. Communication appears to be slow, where the
majority of the smallholder farmers depend on the word of mouth for market information
(Nel et al. , 1997). Transport problems remain a challenge to the farmers, resulting in a
reduction in rural-urban linkages and an increase in rural-rural linkages, where transportation
is unnecessary. However, periodic urban markets arise during payout days, where the farmers
take their produce to the payout points. In some cases, the shop owners who want the
produce have to drive and collect it from the farms. Not so many shop owners go to the farms
for the produce because the road is poorly developed and sometimes impassable (Farolfi and
Rowntree, 2005). It does not make economic sense to collect produce from the farms, taking
into consideration that the farmers produce small volumes.
The majority of smallholder farmers in the Kat River Valley do not belong to any legal
organisations, which makes it difficult to get marketing assistance. It is even difficult to gain
market access because of unreliable supplies and inconsistent produce quantity and quality
from the farmers (Farolfi and Rowntree, 2005). The poor quality of the produce does not
make smallholder farmers' produce an attractive competitor in the formal markets. Other
farmers, particularly the citrus emerging farmers who sell their produce abroad, make use
of middlemen. The main problem facing such farmers is that they do not have knowledge
of such markets and sometimes face problems of fruit rotting before they are sold (Mbilase,
pers. comm., 2007).
5.4.3 Infrastructure
The Kat Dam is the main bulk water infrastructure in the Kat River Valley. It supplies
water for domestic use to the towns of Seymour and Fort Beaufort, as well as for the
irrigation purposes, with citrus being the predominant crop (Magni, 1999). The dam was
commissioned in 1970 with the purpose of irrigating alluvial soils on the banks of the Kat
River Valley. According to Motteux (2001), the Kat Dam is a concrete multiple arch dam
with a dam wall, which is approximately 55.6 m high.
Nel et al. (1997) highlighted that road development is a challenge in the Kat River Valley
because it is influenced by parallel escarpments. Apart from the road to the market, farmers
use poor roads from production areas (orchards, garden and fields) to the loading zones.
The roads are slippery during rainy seasons, making it even more difficult to move produce