The market orientation among South African smallholder farmers in a disaster context

Christopher Ugochukwu Nwafor

Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, 2020, vol. 58, issue 4

Abstract: Market-orientation is widely used to predict the interaction of smallholder farmers with both input and output markets. Commonly used in the market participation discourse, it is fast becoming a key milestone towards smallholder commercialisation. This study introduced it into the disaster, resilience, seed systems, food security and livelihood context. Using a mixed-methods approach, 120 smallholder farmers in a drought-affected district of South Africa were sampled, and information collected for analysis. The result showed that most of the farmers relied on purchased seeds and fertilisers for crop production, and on average sold 62% of their farm produce. It was estimated that the market orientation index (MOI) was 55%, showing that the farmers were market-oriented. The farm size (0.004), quantities of seeds (0.007) and fertiliser (0.024) purchased, the value of crops produced (0.043), the amount received from crop sales (0.001), distance to markets (0.048) and access to credit (0.034) were found to be significant in determining their market orientation. Policy recommendations were made to improve access to seeds and credit for farmers in the area while assisting with increasing farmland size. The findings have implications for development efforts aimed at rebuilding after natural disasters, as well as sourcing food aid from local smallholder farmers by humanitarian actors.

Keywords: Agricultural Finance; Farm Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:pojard:356117

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.356117

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