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Analysis of decision making in smallholder irrigation practice: a case study of Shiloh and Zanyokwe irrigation schemes in Central Eastern Cape, South Africa

- Isaac, Agholor Azikiwe

Authors: Isaac, Agholor Azikiwe
Subjects: Irrigation farming -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Farms, Small -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural extension work -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Crops -- Irrigation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Language: English
Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Agricultural Economics)
Identifier: vital:11215 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1019766 , Irrigation farming -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Farms, Small -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural extension work -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Crops -- Irrigation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Description: The study was conducted in Zanyokwe and Shiloh smallholder irrigation schemes located in Eastern Cape Province at Amathole and Chris Hani districts respectively. The choice of Zanyokwe and Shiloh smallholder irrigation scheme for this study is mainly supported by the fact that it had a substantial level of crop farming activity taking place especially at Zanyokwe while the Shiloh smallholder irrigation specialises dairy farming. The study examined decision making in smallholder irrigation practice with particular reference to Shiloh and Zanyokwe irrigation schemes. The general objective of the thesis was to analyse and model the determinants of SIS farmer‟s decision making. The specific objectives of the study are as follows: to investigate the determinants of decision making among smallholder irrigation farmers; to examine the relationship between household and farm characteristics and institutional factors that explain decision making in smallholder irrigation scheme; assess the contribution of smallholder irrigation farming to household food security; and determine the production and marketing constraints of smallholder farmers‟ in both schemes. The theoretical and conceptual framework of the study gave a detailed discussion on the determinants of decision making of households. The theories used to understand household behaviour under different assumptions were variously discussed. Comprehensive illustrations of analytical framework of the study were also conceptualised. This study used a survey design, quantitative and qualitative research methodologies involving the use of questionnaires and focus group discussions. The data was coded and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). However, frequencies, percentages, bar and pie chart was also computed to describe the data. In consideration of the conceptual framework of the study, the agricultural household model was adopted to analyse smallholder farmer‟s household decision making. Twenty one explanatory variables identified in the conceptual framework of the study were discussed and some of these identified variables were incorporated into the model. The logistic regression model was used as a method of analysis because it can estimate the probability of a certain event occurring and it accommodates a lot of variables which can be ranked in order to illustrate which variables are significant. In the binary logistic model used, seven variables (farm experience, size of farmland, land rights/PTO, water sufficiency, farm asset, market information and production variation) out of the twelve predictor variables were found to have significant effect on influencing household decision making in Shiloh smallholder irrigation scheme, while five variables (gender, age, education, road distance and extension access) were not significant. Of the seven significant variables, four had positive signs (land rights/PTO, water sufficiency and market information); which means that an increase in either of these variables may be associated with an increase in household decision making in Shiloh. The other three predictor variables (farm experience, farm asset and product variation) had negative signs; this means an increase in either of these variables may be associated with a decrease in decision making. In Zanyokwe, six variables (farm experience, land rights/PTO, water sufficiency, farm asset, market information and production variation) out of the twelve predictor variables were found to have significant impact on influencing household decision making, while six variables (gender, age, education, size of farm land, road distance and extension access) were not significant. Of the six significant variables, two had positive signs (water sufficiency and farm asset); which means that an increase in either of these variables may be associated with an increase in household decision making in Zanyokwe. The other four predictor variables (farm experience, land rights/PTO, market information and product variation) had negative signs; this means an increase in either of these variables may be associated with a decrease in decision making. The study concludes that smallholder agriculture is essential for employment generation and food security of households. It is apparent that household food security will not be achieved without giving attention to the role played by smallholders‟ farmers in South Africa. It is pertinent to promulgate an efficient policy programme to address the diversity of smallholders‟ situations and identify the main constraints on investment. Therefore, all spheres of government, the private sector and NGOs should consider investment in smallholder agriculture through coordinated strategies and political support. This study also recommends that government should develop a strategic Smallholder Investment Plan which would improve investments in smallholder agriculture.
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Climate smart soil management: a win-win response to climate change and food security challenges

- Mnkeni, Pearson

Authors: Mnkeni, Pearson
Subjects: Food security , Population growth , Soil degration , Climate change , Global warming , Conservation agriculture , Organic materials
Language: English
Type: Inaugural lecture
Identifier: vital:11980 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1011255 , Food security , Population growth , Soil degration , Climate change , Global warming , Conservation agriculture , Organic materials
Description: Sub-Saharan Africa faces a major food security challenge as a result of projected fast increases in population growth and continuing declining per capita food availability. This calls for accelerated increases in productivity to meet expected increases in food demand. However, the soils from which the extra production is to come from are highly degraded, especially in South Africa where a large proportion of the land is ranked as having high degradation potential. This is compounded by the increasing climate change challenge which will render more land unfavourable for production. The climate change is mainly caused by global warming believed to be a result of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. The link between soil carbon, food security, and climate change will be explained in this paper. It will be shown that the high degradation status of South African soils is related to their low organic carbon contents. Efforts to restore their productivity must include strategies to minimize further loss of organic matter and encouraging carbon sequestration. Some interventions investigated with the help of my students and collaborators are presented. They include use of farmer available organic materials that can be applied to soils to improve soil carbon sequestration and fertility status; use of cyanobacteria to improve soil carbon sequestration and soil biogeochemical performance; and the adoption of conservation agriculture.
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Role of early childhood development practitioners in developing children’s oral language in three selected centres in Buffalo City

- Nodlela, Lumka

Authors: Nodlela, Lumka
Subjects: Early childhood education , Language acquisition , Early childhood teachers
Language: English
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27887 , vital:70453
Description: The child's language development is one of the most notable achievements of the preschool years. Children must develop their language skills effectively to access the curriculum. Practitioners of Early Childhood Development (ECD) have a substantial impact on children's spoken language development. As a result, three centers in the Buffalo City Education District are the subject of this dissertation's investigation into how ECD practitioners contribute to children's oral language development. The applicable theory used in the study was Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theory. The existent phenomenon was examined using the interpretivist research paradigm and the qualitative research methodology. The study used a phenomenological research approach to examine the perspectives, functions, and experiences of individuals (ECD practitioners) in the growth of children's oral language. The study used purposive sampling. Participants were purposively selected as because of their proximity to the researcher’s workplace. The fifteen practitioners in the chosen ECD centers were interviewed in semi-structured interviews, and data were also gathered through observations. Following transcription, sorting, and categorization, the gathered data were thematically analysed using themes inferred from the study objectives. The study's conclusions showed that ECD specialists help children improve their oral language in a useful way. As a result, they require training in the creation and application of various strategies for fostering oral language in young children. Short courses will also assist practitioners in fostering the overall development of children. One of the key elements that interferes with effective teaching and learning at ECD centers, though, is a shortage of resources. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, 2023
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Social acts and projections of change

- Minkley, G

Authors: Minkley, G
Language: English
Type: Inaugural lecture
Identifier: vital:11982 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1011241
Description: This lecture considers the question of the social from within the workings of the SARChI Chair in Social Change. Rather than accepting ‘the social’ as something that is given, it proposes that we problematize and ‘re: work’ the social as being a hybrid domain, as being spatially diverse and as being enacted. An argument for ‘social acts’, which are related to, but not the same as actors and actions is proposed as a means to read and understand the social and projections of social change in new ways. While social acts produce actors and need actors to be actualised, social acts themselves produce ruptures in the given, entail a remaining in the scene and they always involve others and the Other in altering projections of the social, of ‘other socials’, and of projections of change. In practice too, the enactment of the social and the material as integrally associative decentre the object, bringing it into view as one that is also socially enacted, requiring continuing effort, choreography, staging, repetition, but also rupture. To enact, then, is to realize a rupture in the given-ness of the social and to necessarily attend to the unexpected, unpredictable and unknown of the social and its equally enacted and re-worked projections of change.
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South Africa`s reflections and juxtapositions of puffery psychodynamic evaluation of public administration shortcomings: public protests versus elections outcomes

- Ijeoma, Edwin Okechukwu Chikata

Authors: Ijeoma, Edwin Okechukwu Chikata
Subjects: Public procurement , Service delivery , Corruption , Tender fraud , Cadre deployment , Law courts
Language: English
Type: Inaugural lecture
Identifier: vital:11972 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1007762 , Public procurement , Service delivery , Corruption , Tender fraud , Cadre deployment , Law courts
Description: As the country concludes the second decade since the dawn of the new democratic dispensation in South Africa, there has been an explosion in the magnitude and intensity of service delivery related protest in the entire country. Such grumbling actions are a sign of the perceived growing frustration of the citizens of the failure of their government to provide service to them or a situation catalysed by the “enemies of the state”?. The governing party has to reflect on its policies and practices so as to rectify these in line with satisfying the citizens since these are the voters-cum-tax payers. Ironically, the protests related to service rendering are more frequent in the strongholds of the governing party, a situation which has led to some scholars handpicking the cadre deployment policy of the governing party as a failure. There are various incidences where residents or citizens had to take to the streets in protest of the manner in which the government has addressed the plight of the ordinary citizens. Some of these protests have turned into running battles between the residents and the police, sometimes even leading to death of protestors. One case in point is the death in Ficksburg of Andres Tatane on the 13 of April 2011, a protester from rubber bullet wounds in the Free State Province. The death has also been labelled a failure on the side of the police, same as those of the Marikana miners and the Mozambican Mido Macia on the 27 of February 2013, who also succumbed to police inflicted injuries. This paper probes the outcomes of elections and service delivery in the wake of the protracted rise in public service delivery protests. The paper also provides some recommendations which the governing parties can consider in reshaping its mandate and policies aimed at elimination the frequency of Public protest everywhere in the country.
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