The effects of government agricultural development support on the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in South Africa

Abstract

Over the past couple of years, the South African government has been offering varied support to households that are engaged in small-scale farming, with the objectives of improving their livelihoods, income and food security. Although the various rounds of the General Household Survey (GHS) gathered information on the type of agricultural support received by the farmers, their production, agricultural income and food security status, there is limited empirical evidence on the extent to which the agricultural support programme is yielding the intended results. Very little is also known about how the beneficiary households perceive the agricultural support programme as either relevant or otherwise. This study fills these gaps in the literature using the GHS data spanning the period 2013 to 2016 to assess how government agricultural development support influences the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in South Africa. This broad objective is divided into two specific objectives: (1) to assess the effects of government agricultural development support on agricultural income, production and food security of beneficiary small-scale farmers in South Africa; and (2) to assess the usefulness of the government agricultural development support for the beneficiary small-scale the government agricultural development support for the beneficiary small-scale farmers in South Africa. By combining descriptive analysis with Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and logistic estimation techniques to address these objectives, the results indicate that from the year 2013 to the 2016 survey years, the proportion of households who have access to agricultural development support has decreased marginally by about two percent. Access to support has remained higher among males than females; farmers who have low levels of education than those with high levels of education. Across provinces access to agricultural support is high in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, North -West and Mpumalanga, but very low in the Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng and Western Cape. The agricultural development assistance given by the South African government is effective in reducing food insecurity, as well as in improving the production and income of the beneficiary smallscale farmers. However, the results suggest that the agricultural support system is having a heterogeneous impact on beneficiary small-scale farmers, depending on their gender and geographical locations.