Effects of Cultivated Area on Smallholder Farm Profits and Food Security in Rural Communities of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Nyarai M. Mujuru and Ajuruchukwu Obi
Additional contact information
Nyarai M. Mujuru: Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
Ajuruchukwu Obi: Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: As rural poverty deepens over much of Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder transformation has become more urgent than ever before. A majority of rural people derive their livelihoods from agriculture, hence the urgent need for transforming the sector. The South African government launched a comprehensive land reform programme at the dawn of democracy in the country on the assumption that constraints on land size would be eliminated to make room for a more inclusive agricultural economy. The present study sought to assess how cultivated area affects food security and the profits of maize and cabbage farmers. The purposive sampling technique was used for the selection of study sites, from which 158 irrigators and homestead gardeners were selected. The data were then subjected to analysis by defining a maximum likelihood estimator that combines the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and one-way error correction model, to determine the factors influencing food security and farm profits. The model revealed diverse relationships, suggesting that location, farm type and income were important variables in explaining food security. The area under cultivation was found to influence profits for both crops. Policies in favour of technology adoption, market access and input use would greatly incentivize farmers to cultivate larger plots of land.

Keywords: profitability; food security; smallholder crop enterprise; seemingly unrelated regression analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3272/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3272/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3272-:d:346990

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().