Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
migrant workers in the cities of Durban, Johannesburg. Hence over 70% of the farmers were
female. Education levels are low and are consistent with most rural farming communities in
South Africa, where formal education opportunities are limited. Household sizes were large
with family labour playing a major role in tilling the land. Small farm sizes averaging 0. 59
hectares for fully-certified organic farmers, 0. 67 hectares for non-organic farmers and 0. 71
hectares for partially-certified farming was common in KwaZulu-Natal.
The main sources of income were farm and off farm employment, the latter constituting wages
or salary income and remittances. Farm income was highest for fully-certified organic farmers.
This is an indication that the adoption of fully-certified organic farming and its commerciali‐
zation has brought economic benefits to these otherwise poor rural households and is an
important contributor to household income. The proportion of income from farming was
highest among the fully certified organic farmers. While the average farmer was classified as
risk averse, non-organic farmers were more risk averse than their organic counterparts. Risk-
averse farmers are reluctant to invest in innovations of which they have little first-hand
experience. Despite the tenure system being communal, farmers felt they had tenure rights
through the permission to occupywith allocation done by the traditional chief of the tribe
(
inkosi
) and his headman (
induna
). On average the farmers acknowledged that the household
had rights to exercise on its own cropland the building of structures, planting trees and
bequeathing to family members or leasing out. Fully certified farmers had more assets than
their non-organic counterparts as well as chicken and livestock.
Fully-certified organic Partially-certified organic
Non-organic
Variable
Mean
Std. Dev
Mean
Std. Dev
Mean
Std. Dev
Age (years)
52.60
1.90
48.60
1.41
52.70
2.11
Gender (1=female)
0.82
0.05
0.71
0.05
0.84
0.05
Education (years)
4.94
4.24
4.37
4.49
3.38
0.61
Household size
9.49
5.23
7.72
3.68
6.60
3.46
Land size (hectares)
0.59
1.22
0.71
1.16
0.67
1.43
Input costs (rand/year)
812.90
884.90
309.30
343.40
318.20
302.90
Proportion of income from farming
0.62
0.79
0.38
1.04
0.39
0.63
Farm income (rands/year)
973.17
1074.51
417.26
271.50
400.53
429.53
Location
2.56
0.60
1.91
0.54
4.00
0.00
Arrow Pratt Risk Aversion coefficient
0.55
0.29
0.58
0.31
0.76
0.29
Land rights (0 = no)
1.98
0.14
1.75
0.56
1.93
0.33
Chicken ownership
15.29
13.16
9.25
8.69
6.40
6.62
Asset ownership (index)
0.98
0.60
0.56
0.59
0.67
0.75
Table 1.
Summary statistics of sampled farmers in KwaZulu-Natal (n=200)
