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This is to certify that the

dissertation entitled

Smallholder Farmers' Perceptions of the Northern
Province's Extension Service: Case Studies in Two
Villages in the Northern Province of South Africa

presented by

Nicole Sheree Webster

has been accepted towards fulﬁllment
of the requirements for

Ph.D. degreeinAgzigyanxal & Extension

Education

 

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M ajor professor

Date August 20, 2002

MS U is an Afﬁrmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-12771

 

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6/01 c-JCIRC/DateDue.p65-p.15

SMALLHOLDER FARMERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PROVINCE’S
EXTENSION SERVICE: CASE STUDIES IN TWO VILLAGES IN THE
NORTHERN PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

By

Nicole Sheree Webster

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Education
and Communication Systems

2002

ABSTRACT
SMALLHOLDER FARMERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PROVINCE’S
EXTENSION SERVICE: CASE STUDIES IN TWO VILLAGES IN THE
NORTHERN PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA
By

Nicole Sheree Webster

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify the perceived needs of
smallholder farmers in the Northern Province of South Africa in relation to the delivery
of information and programs by the agricultural extension service. The objective of this
study was to determine the extent to which the delivery of programs and information in
the Northern Provincial agricultural extension system affects the productivity, economic
inputs, and quality of life of smallholder farmers in two villages in the Northern Province.

Qualitative research, in particular, case studies, was deemed appropriate for
investigating the perceptions of smallholder farmers. In-depth interviews were conducted
with six smallholder farmers from two villages, who were chosen through purposive
sampling. In addition, focus-group[ discussions were held with key individuals in the
Northern Province Department of Agriculture and extension system.

The ﬁndings revealed several issues that affected the quality of life of smallholder
farmers in both villages. These farmers reported that they were not receiving informative
and technical information needed to increase productivity throughout the farming

seasons. The information they received from extension agents was outdated and

irrelevant to their basic farming needs. They perceived the attitude of their extension
agents during their visits to be unsupportive and unaccommodating. This perception was
supported by the frequent absences and nonchalant attitudes of the extension ofﬁcers
during ﬁeld visits. Farmers also reported that the lack of communication and
transportation of the extension ofﬁcers was a major point of contention because it limited
the scope of their work. Many farmers suggested that if the extension ofﬁcers had access
to landline phones, they would be able to assist the farmers in obtaining inputs. In one
village, the farmers noted it would keep them in immediate contact with the
nongovernmental organization in Pietersburg that funded their irrigation scheme. In
addition, the farmers noted that the extension officers received minimal training and
supervision during the course of their careers. This resulted in a lack of accountability
and liability for the extension ofﬁcers in the villages. The data indicated that the overall
extension system needs to transform the training, delivery, and support of smallholder
farmers throughout the Northern Province in order to improve their daily farming

practices, thereby leading to an improvement in their quality of life.

Copyrighted by Nicole Sheree Webster

Dedicated to
Wanda Collins, who served as my conﬁdante and friend
throughout this arduous process, but was unable

to Share in my joy.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my

graduate committee, Drs. Frank L. Brewer, James E. Jay, Murari Suvedi, and Reitu

“M

Mabokela. Their constant guidance, feedback, and suggestions kept me groundedgin- the

W

Aw "’ “ya...

 

pI'O‘CCSS—f

The unwavering support of my family and friends kept up my spirit and allowed
me to keep my eyes on the prize. My mother, Martha Webster, and father, Clarence
Webster, never doubted my decisions and always offered words of encouragement. My
Sister, Tonia Webster, always knew when to call, and my brother, Chris Webster, always
knew when to listen. Several others have remained supportive and given me support and
soul-ﬁlling words during this passage: Andrea Stanley, Natalie Nelson. Carmen Bell,
and the late Wanda Collins.

My gratitude is extended to those in South Africa who shared much valuable
information and showed me how to receive such information. Without them, I would not
have been able to write such a detailed and informative piece. Thank you to the farmers,
who must remain anonymous, for sharing such a valuable piece of yourselves with me. I
also extend my gratitude to the staff and faculty of the University of the North, who not
only supported my research but also made me feel a part of their university family.
Special thanks is extended to Robbie Steward and Professor Mollel, who served as my
external reviewers. Professor Mollel, Maropeni Mualadzi, Tirhani Prudence, and Ernest
Letsolo, I thank you for your friendship and kindness, which I will always cherish.

Without their support, I would not have been able to tell the farmers’ story.

vi

Dinah, thank you for your patience in the translation process. Thanks also to Sydney,
Ernest, Tirhani, and Mpedi, who accompanied me during my ﬁeld visits. My gratitude is
also extended to the Northern Province Department of Agriculture for their willingness to
Share their resources so that I could better understand the people, the area, and the
extension system.

Finally, a special thank-you to Dr. James E. Jay, who was always my constant

supporter. I will forever remember his commitment to my success.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... xi
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xii
CHAPTER I '

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY ............................................................... 1
Problem ....................................................................................................................... 1
Situational Problem .......... g ........................................................................................... 3
Purpose .of the Study ........................................... - ........................................................ 5
Importance of the Study ............................................................................................... 5

Policy and Politics .................................................................................................. 6
Higher Education and Research .............................................................................. 8
Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 9
Assumptions and Limitations ..................................................................................... 10
Deﬁnition of Terms ................................................................................................... 10
Summary ................................................................................................................... 14

CHAPTER H

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ....................................................................... 15
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 5
Smallholder Farming in South Africa ........................................................................ 16

History .................................................................................................................. 16
Current Situation .................................................................................................. 17
Economic Stability and Poverty ................................................................................. 19
Agricultural Extension in South Africa ...................................................................... 21
Beginnings of Extension Work ............................................................................. 21
Extension Services for White Farmers and the Commercial Farming Sector ......... 22
Extension Services in Rural and Developing Areas ............................................... 23
Comparison of the Two Extension Systems in South Africa .................................. 24
Restructuring Agriculture in the Northern Province .............................................. 25
Land Reform and Redistribution ................................................................................ 26
Provincial Restructuring ....................................................................................... 29
Current Agricultural Extension Situation in the Northern Province ............................ 31
Program Redevelopment ............................................................................................ 34
Summary ................................................................................................................... 36

CHAPTER 1H

METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 38
Study Design ............................................................................................................. 38

The Researcher’s Paradigm ................................................................................... 38
Case Study Research ............................................................................................. 39
The Study Population ................................................................................................ 42
Site Selection and Recruitment .................................................................................. 44

viii

On-Site Data Collection ............................................................................................. 46

Sekgosese Area (Dry-Land Farming Site) ............................................................. 47
Straydkraal Area (Irrigated Farming Site) ............................................................. 47
Data Management ...................................................................................................... 49
Respondent Codes ................................................................................................ 49
Data-Analysis Framework ......................................................................................... 49
Data-Analysis Procedures .......................................................................................... 51
External Reviewers....................... ........................................................................ 54
Quality Criteria .......................................................................................................... 54
Validity and Credibility ........................................................................................ 55
Transferability ...................................................................................................... 56
Dependability and Conﬁrmability ......................................................................... 57
Limitations ................................................................................................................ 57
CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS ..................................................................................................................... 60
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 6O
Demographic Information .......................................................................................... 60
Findings Related to the Research Questions ......... . ..................................................... 63
Case Study 1: Straydkraal Irrigation Scheme (Irrigated Area) .................................. 67
Demographics ....................................................................................................... 67
Constraints on Productivity ................................................................................... 68
Findings ................................................................................................................ 69
Case Study 2: Sekgosese (Dry-Land Area) ............................................................... 80
Demographics ....................................................................................................... 80
Findings ................................................................................................................ 82
Comparison of Responses From the Two Sites .......................................................... 90
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, MAJOR FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS,
RECOMMENDATIONS, AND REFLECTIONS ........................................................... 92
Summary ................................................................................................................... 92
Major Findings .......................................................................................................... 93
Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 95
Implications ............................................................................................................... 96
Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 98
Recommendations for Practice .............................................................................. 98
Recommendations for Further Research ................................................................ 99
Reﬂections ................................................................................................................ 99
APPENDICES
A. Maps of the Study Areas .......................................................................................... 103
B. Introductory Letter and Consent Form ...................................................................... 106

ix

C. Interview Questions ................................................................................................. 109

D. Approval Letter From the University Committee on Research Involving

Human Subjects ....................................................................................................... 114
E. Correspondence ....................................................................................................... l 16
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. l 18

LIST OF TABLES

4.1 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents in Sekgosese and
Straydkraal ........................................................................................................... 62

LIST OF FIGURES

2.1 General Principles Outlined by the Department of Agriculture Regarding the
Reorganization of Agriculture in the Northern Province ........................................ 32

2.2 Agriculture, Research, Training, and Extension Guidelines Outlined by the
Department of Agriculture Toward the Reorganization of Agriculture in the

Northern Province .................................................................................................. 33
2.3 Livelihood System ................................................................................................. 3 5
A. 1 Location of the Sekgosese Study Area in the Northern Province .......................... 104
A2 Location of the Straydkraal Study Area in the Northern Province ......................... 105

xii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

@1211.

The demand for food and expanding competition in the international market are
causing many developing countries to reexamine their agricultural sectors. One such area
is Sub-Saharan Africa, which has a history of self-sufﬁcient agricultural production to
meet the food needs of its population (Thobane, n.d.). Although this region has been
self-sufﬁcient in terms of agricultural production, a host of political, social, and economic
problems have caused serious instabilities. In particular, South Africa has been plagued
by poverty and the vulnerabilities brought on by apartheid (Van Rooyen & Botha, 1994).

As reported by Data Research Africa in 1996, South Aﬁica has vast amounts of
wealth relative to the country’s average per capita gross domestic product, in contrast to
the poverty-stricken households. An inability to satisfy residents’ essential needs has
stemmed from many factors, speciﬁcally the apartheid system. Apartheid created a
system that affected the assets and dispossession of many rural households, which
ultimately affected their rural agricultural livelihoods. It also created dual types of
agricultural services for black and white farmers throughout the country (Hedden-
Dunkenhorst & Mollel, 1999).

Historically, the types of agricultural services and information delivered to
farmers throughout South Africa were shaped by the apartheid system. N. M. Mollel
(personal communication, 2001) and E. M. Zwane (personal communication, 2001) both
noted that apartheid created a dualistic extension system that served white and black

farmers in two different manners. This situation has led to controversy about improving

the conditions of smallholder farmers within the context of agricultural productivity
without regard to existing conditions, such as inappropriate technology, inadequate
rainfall and water supplies, poor extension advice, and lack of credit and markets
(Initiative for Development and Equity in African Agriculture [IDEM], 1998a; May et
al., 2000; N. M. Mollel, personal communication, 2001). Within the agricultural sector,
organizations, higher educational institutions, and government have been involved in
determining how to improve extension services for rural farmers.

Some organizations involved in this discussion have stated that rural extension’s
sole responsibility should be advising and training farmers, as suggested by Eastern
Cape’s Department of Agriculture, whereas the Northern Province’s Department of
Agriculture has suggested that rural development extension services should involve
retraining extension ofﬁcers and reorganizing the service itself (Barnes, 1999). Others
have argued that the delivery mechanisms for agricultural extension have major ﬂaws
that must be addressed to revitalize smallholder farmers and agriculture in South Aﬁica.
Some have argued that imbalances created in the agricultural sector by past
discriminatory government policies should be redressed (Stilwell, 1997). The
overarching issue of concern of all parties is extension and its role in the development
and sustainability of smallholder farmers.

In the Northern Province, the focus has been to improve the existing extension
service, with emphasis on retraining and reorientation (N. M. Mollel, personal
communication, 2001). The Northern Province is regarded as the poorest and least
resourced province in South Africa. It spans 12.3 million hectares, which is about 10%
of the South African soil. Of the province’s population of 4.93 million people, nearly

88% are considered rural. Approximately 80% live below the poverty level

(Development Bank of South Africa, 1998). Only 87% of the population have access to
land, ranging from .06 to 4.3 hectares in size, and lack the proper resources, credit, and
markets for farming. According to Ntozake, smallholder farmers are overburdened with
debts from government loans and unutilized plots with a sophisticated irrigation
infrastructure that only government technicians can operate. Many people believe that, in
order to improve conditions in the agricultural sector, extension staff need more training
and development. Increased technical knowledge will help meet the needs of rural
farmers and allow them to become more empowered (IDEAA, 1998b; J iggins, 1997). By
addressing the delivery mechanisms for agricultural extension for smallholder farmers,
agriculture as a whole in South Africa can be revitalized, with a focus on allocations of
ﬁscal and human resources and information services (Small-Scale Farmers Association

Report, 1997).

Situational Problem

Several South African researchers interested in the development of smallholder
farmers have argued that, for change to occur, there must be an acknowledgment and
understanding of the apartheid system and how the entire service system affects the black
smallholder farmer (Development Report on Extension and Support Services, 2000). Van
Rooyen and Botha (1994) said that there must be an understanding of the relationship
between white and black farmers in agricultural communities throughout South Africa.
According to Feder, Willett, and Zijp (1999), provincial leaders and agricultural
educators must recognize the lack of resources, trained staff, and infrastructure that has
created limitations in their rural communities because they are responsible for deciding
what role government should play in implementing and facilitating policies and laws that

will affect black rural farmers.

In terms of research, there must be an increased interest in funding research in the

area of agricultural extension in order to analyze the current situation and provide

suggestions for the future (Townsend, 1997). Past inequities have limited the amount of

research done in this area, and the current lack of funding has limited scholarship and

development of extension services. An examination of problems in the rural agricultural

community shows disproportionate resources, funding, and opportunities. This has

spilled over into support services such as extension, causing the quality of those services

to be inadequate for smallholder and subsistence farmers.

The problem that currently exists in the black rural agricultural extension sector is

exempliﬁed by the following concerns (N. M. Mollel, personal communication, 2001;

Thobane, n.d.; Zijp, 1999):

l.

2.

7.

8.

Unqualiﬁed staff working with rural black farmers (smallholder farmers)

Limiting market restrictions and lack of credit

. High ratios of extension staff to farmers
. Lack of technical training for black extension staff
. Limited resources

. Limited accessibility of farmers to extension staff

Inadequate transmission of information to smallholder farmers

Lack of understanding of the contributions of smallholder farmers to the

agricultural sector.

9.

Lack of research on smallholder farmers

The above-mentioned factors have contributed to the low quality of life

experienced by many smallholder farmers and have limited their economic contributions

to agriculture. As pointed out in South Africa White Policy Paper (1999), a report on the

rationale for supporting rural infrastructure, there is evidence that, “given the right
incentives and supported by adequate economic and social infrastructure, small-scale
agriculture could make a signiﬁcant contribution to growth, redistribution and

employment” in the future.

Purpose of the Stug

My purpose in this qualitative study was to identify the perceived needs of
smallholder farmers in the Northern Province of South Africa in relation to the delivery
of information and programs by the agricultural extension service. Kaplan and Maxwell
(1994) argued that the goal of understanding a phenomenon from the point of view of the
participants and its particular social and institutional context is largely lost when textual
data are quantiﬁed. In this study, personal interviews with rural smallholder farmers
provided a deeper understanding of the context of change in the delivery of agricultural

extension services.

[Em—name of the Study

Given the agricultural development goals stated by the South African
government, the Northern Provincial agricultural sector, private industry, and other
agricultural industries, the extension service is of great importance to smallholder
farming in South Aﬁica. This study was designed to provide a baseline for examining
the effectiveness of the extension service in serving the needs of smallholder farmers in
South Africa’s Northern Province. The ﬁndings will furnish useful information on
extension issues that exist in a strong agricultural community such as the Northern
Province. Information will be provided for the improvement of the overall extension

service in meeting the needs of rural smallholder farmers. Further, the study will serve as

a guiding framework for establishing agricultural policies geared toward farmers and
farm families in the homelands.

Historically, agricultural policies in the homelands and rural areas of the Northern
Province were neither focused nor speciﬁc. This research will help by providing a
clearer vision, greater accountability to farmers, and recommendations for an extension
system that delivers a useful service to farmers (South African Department of
Agriculture, 2000).

Agriculture will remain a primary source of income for the majority of people in
South Africa because nearly 80% of the population live in rural areas and do not have
access to major markets. The agricultural industry is these people’s primary source of
income and their major form of employment (IDEAA, 1998a). The role of agriculture in
the lives of the people of South Africa’s Northern Province extends beyond its immediate
economic beneﬁts. IDEAA noted that agriculture serves as “a major supplier of food and
raw materials to the rest of the economy, while at the same time being a user of
manufactured inputs (mainly of non-farm origin), consumer goods, . . . a custodian of
scarce natural resources and a potential as a generator of foreign exchange.” If
agricultural issues related to the quality of life and sustainability in the Northern Province
are not addressed, it could negatively affect millions of people, upsetting the family unit,

culture, and economic balance of this major provincial area.

Policy and Politics

Given that nearly 31% of the surface area of the Northern Province
accommodates approximately 89% of the black rural population, agriculture and farming
are topics of concern for many policymakers. The farmers who reside in these former

homeland areas are greatly affected by the policies and decisions of these officials. If the

6

 

ofﬁcials are able to address the barriers and constraints of smallholder farming, it could
shift the focus from national food self-sufﬁciency to household food security and
sufﬁciency (South Africa White Policy Paper, 1999).

The quality of life of small-scale farmers is inﬂuenced by the agendas of national
and local governments throughout the country. If they are given technical assistance and
support through extension, smallholder farmers should also be able to produce more on
the existing land and realize proﬁtable returns (Eicher & Rukini, 1996).

At present, Northern Provincial smallholder farmers and others in the rural
agricultural community believe that, due to past discriminatory practices and policies,
extension programs and agricultural information in the Northern Province of South
Africa have been scarce and outdated, extension staff are not well informed, and they are
not included in major research studies (personal interviews with rural farmers, 2001).
Major constraints are (a) unavailability of ﬁnancial support, (b) unreliability of
mechanization services, (c) lack of market information and facilities, ((1) inadequate and
poor maintenance of infrastructure, (e) low literacy levels, and (i) an aging farming
community. These problems are being addressed by the present government through the
new agricultural policy paper. Several of the guiding principles outlined in the Northern
Provincial Agricultural Policy Paper that address the potential of extension in the
development of rural farmers are as follows:

1.1 The important role of agriculture in the reconstruction and development of the
Northern Transvaal’s economy and in particular rural society will be recognized.

1.2 Agricultural support programmes and services will be designed with the purpose
of improving the quality of life and productivity of farmers and farm workers.

1.3 National and particularly household food security are important and will be
addressed through multidimensional strategies.

1.7 Afﬁrmative action programmes will be focused on low-income South Africans
who were previously denied access to opportunities in agriculture; will be
equitable to ensure access to agricultural resources, credits and farmer-support
services; will be based on merit and will be implemented in a transparent manner.

1.11 The needs of farmers, especially new entrants and small-scale farmers, will be
met through the reorientation and training of trainers, extension and research
workers.

Many local and national leaders have stressed the importance of small-scale
farmers in the South African economic and cultural framework. These farmers are seen
as the bread and butter of the community, and their existence is important to those who
cannot afford the high-cost goods produced on commercial farms (Shackleton,
Shackleton, & Cousins, 2000). Smallholder farmers constitute a valuable resource for the
general community because of their potential to link agricultural business to the rural
communities (Machete, Reardon, & Mead, 1997). With the growing trend to upgrade the
quality of production of small-scale farmers through technological and current

information, typically generated at agriculturally based schools, the possibilities for

advancement are tremendous (E. M. Zwane, personal communication, 2001).

Higher Education and Resem

Higher education institutions such as the University of the North (UNIN) that
serve many black farmers have been greatly affected by apartheid. Disproportionate
resources, funding, and infrastructure indirectly inﬂuence the type of technological
information that is available and the ability to disseminate it to rural farmers. Research
on the quality of life of black farmers in relation to agricultural information from
educational institutions that deal with extension service could inﬂuence laws, increase
funding, and enhance other resources used by both parties (Small-Scale Farmers

Association Report, 2000).

This study provided an Opportunity for people who have been silenced for years
to have a voice (Lethsolo, 2001). In a report prepared for Data Research Africa, May et
al. (1996) stated, “The focus of policy in South Africa now places greater emphasis on
process, on empowering people to speak for themselves and the ways in which people are
able to deﬁne their own solutions.” This is in accord with the interest-convergence tenet
of critical race theory, which states that white elites beneﬁt from the advances of racism
(Delgado & Stephancic, 2001). These respondents’ ﬁrst-hand accounts of the present
situation can inﬂuence government policy and drive self-determination through their
participation. The study ﬁndings can give a new perspective on program planning,
development, and implementation in extension and provide valuable information for

legislation pertaining to agriculture in the Northern Province of South Africa.

Research Questions

This study was designed to provide foundational information about the methods
by which the agricultural extension system delivers education to black smallholder
farmers in the Northern Province of South Africa. The following questions guided the
collection of data for this study:

1. To what extent does the delivery of technical information and methods by the
Northern Province extension system affect the productivity, economic inputs, and quality
of life of smallholder farmers in the Northern Province of South Africa?

2. What are the barriers of the present extension system for smallholder farmers?

3. How do past and present government policies affect the educational delivery

methods of the extension system for smallholder farmers in the Northern Province?

4. What is the effect of support services on the productivity and yields of farmers

in the Northern Province?

5. How appropriate is the information provided by extension ofﬁcers to

smallholder farmers?

AssumptionsJand Limitations
Participants who could serve as key informants within selected communities were
purposefully selected. Therefore, results of the study cannot be generalized to the entire
smallholder farming population. Respondents participated voluntarily, and their
responses were assumed to reﬂect their true feelings. The subjects’ responses were based
in the context of rural farm life in the Northern Province of South Africa. The research
was conducted in only two villages in the Northern Province. The research reﬂects one

particular time in an ever-changing region.

Deﬁnition of Terms

The following terms are deﬁned in the context in which they are used in this
dissertation.

Apgrtheid government. Apartheid was a systematic and highly functional
government that advocated white domination while extending racial separation. Laws
and policies that reinforced racial discrimination were institutionalized in South Africa
beginning in the 19408. Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a
prohibition of marriage between nonwhites and whites, and the sanctioning of “white-
only” jobs. The Population Registration Act of 1950 required that all South Africans be
racially classiﬁed into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of
mixed race). This practice extended into the planning of the “grand apartheid plan,”

emphasizing territorial separation and police repression.

10

BM. The word Bantu is used to describe and classify black Africans, excluding
two ethnic groups, the Khoi (Hottentot) and the Sans (Bushman).

Change agents. Change agents are senior and middle-level ofﬁcers in agricultural
parastatals, government departments such as the Ministry of Agriculture, extension,
universities, and nongovernmental organizations responsible for developing innovative
ways of helping to improve productivity among smallholder farmers and for identifying
and reviewing policies that hinder their development.

Extension services. Such services are provided by a loose network of public and
private organizations that serve the agricultural needs of farmers throughout South
Africa. These organizations may work independently of one another, but in several
instances collaborations have been formed to meet the speciﬁc needs of farming
communities. Due to the historical framework of farming, extension services can be
classiﬁed into three distinct types: smallholder farming services, emerging-farmer
services, and commercial farm services. Although these distinctions are apparent within
the farming community, in actuality the service-delivery organizations work to meet the
needs of all farmers.

Homeland areas. In 1951, the Bantu Authorities Act established a basis for ethnic
government in African reserves, known as “homelands.” These 10 homeland spatial
areas were independent states to which Aﬁicans were assigned by the government,
according to the record of origin (which frequently was inaccurate). All political rights,
including voting, held by Africans were restricted to the designated homeland. The idea
was that they would be citizens of the homeland, losing their citizenship in South Africa
and any right of involvement with the South Aﬁican Parliament, which held complete

hegemony over the homelands. From 1976 to 1981, four of these homelands were

11

created, denationalizing 9 million South Africans. The homeland administration refused
the nominal independence, maintaining pressure for political rights within the country as
a whole. These displaced people did not have free entry into South Africa and needed a
passport to cross the border.

I_nmr_ts. Inputs are the tangible and intangible tools that farmers use to enhance
their farming ventures and increase their productivity. Credit services, technical and
nontechnical information, supplies (including machinery and hand tools for farming,
fertilizer, seeds, pesticides, and dip), and marketing information frame the typical South
African context.

Institutional analysis. An understanding of an institution’s role in a speciﬁed
community and the role of each of the institution’s stakeholders is gained through
institutional analysis. Such an analysis speciﬁes organizational strengths, weaknesses,

and roles while distinctly deﬁning the positions of the institution’s stakeholders.

Institutions. Organizations such as government, universities, and private industry

are the mainstream forms of institutions, but with the recent restructuring and thinking in

South Africa, institutions now can be deﬁned as “rules” that govern the behavior of

individuals or people and organizations in public, private, and civil sectors (IDEAA,

1998a). For the purposes of this dissertation, the terms institutions and organizations are

used interchangeably because they both govern the relationships among and between
their members and nonmembers.

Northern Province Department of Agricultural Extension Services. This

department is the governing agricultural agency in the Northern Province that is expected

to perform and drive the following functions and processes (Department of Agriculture,

2001):

12

‘1';—

 

1. Administer the state’s agricultural land in the province, oversee the land
reform project, participate in land redistribution and land use, and plan and address land
queries from the public.

2. Oversee resource conservation; control pests and noxious weeds; provide
infrastructure like fencing, boreholes, and storerooms; and beneﬁt the community
through contribution of labor and material.

3. Lead the provincial agricultural policy development and oversee its
implementation.

4. Empower small, emerging farmers who were denied access to land and support
services in the past.

5. Promote technological packages that recognize the importance of indigenous
technologies in the province.

6. Maintain an up-to-date database on agricultural statistics.

7. Ensure that agricultural resources in the province are optimally used.

Rural development. This is an evolutionary process that occurs within rural
communities. It is multifaceted in nature and involves a participatory process that
ultimately changes the behavior of community members over time and creates a sense of
ownership for all who are involved.

Service-delivery organizations. These are organizations or institutions that
provide a service to farmers in South Africa. Organizations that provide services to
farmers range from technical and educational endeavors, to economic institutions, to
input-supply organizations. All of them provide service in their own distinct manner and

interact with farmers in ways they deem appropriate.

13

Smallholder farmer. A smallholder is a traditional black farmer in South Africa,
who holds between .05 and 5 hectares of land. Typically, such farmers perform
agricultural work for an economic gain of less than 10% of their household income;
engage in cash-crop farming for approximately 70% of their crops, with the rest for their
own consumption; and rely on indigenous knowledge for most of their technical

information (Mollel, 2000).

Spams

The current problem of smallholder farmers’ receiving adequate information and !

service delivery from the government extension service in South Africa was introduced in

 

this chapter. The context of the study, within the framework of past discriminatory laws
of apartheid and current policies, was discussed. Additional information was provided to
support the rationale for this situational analysis.

In this study I sought to identify the perceived needs of smallholder farmers in the
Northern Province of South Africa in relation to the delivery of information and
programs by extension services. Qualitative methods in the form of a case study were
used in carrying out this descriptive study. Respondents from two villages, who were
purposefully sampled and interviewed, included rural farmers, extension staff, and other
ofﬁcials working at UNIN and the Northern Province Department of Land and

Agriculture.

14

CHAPTER 11

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Introduction

To appreciate South Africa, it is necessary to understand the country’s history.
Without this historical framework, it is hard to understand the role and plight of small-
scale farmers in South Africa. Although the historical context is complex, it is important
in understanding the Northern Province, small-scale farmers, and the extension service.
The circumstances that have affected smallholder farmers developed through a series of
discriminatory laws, regulations, and acts deemed necessary by an apartheid government.
These laws brought about a divided extension system that resulted in limited resources,
barriers to market, and a lack of credit for black farmers in rural areas.

As political changes began to occur in the country, many individuals thought that
the extension system needed to be revitalized and restructured (Small-Scale Farmers
Association Report, 1997). Chimedza pointed out the need to support the transformation
of institutions for effective service delivery in the opening article in an IDEAA (1999)
newsletter:

Transforming institutions for effective service delivery to smallholder farmers is

the theme running through most sections in this newsletter. The premise of the

IDEAA Regional Programme is that smallholder farmers in Africa can only

increase productivity when service-providing institutions become more

responsive to their needs. In the past, a lot of resources were invested in
smallholder agriculture, supporting delivery of such services as extension,
marketing and credit. The smallholder farmer investments did not yield the
expected results. The smallholder farmer in most of Africa has become less
productive and poorer in real terms in the last couple of decades. Much of the
rural households are food insecure and lack some of the basic requirements for

livelihood security. The answer to Africa’s smallholder problems has eluded
many.

15

The foregoing statement supports my premise that transformation and change must
happen within the delivery service of agricultural extension in order to change the quality
of life for smallholder farmers and their families.

The review of literature is organized into four conceptual areas. These are
smallholder farming, economic stability and poverty, agricultural extension in South
Africa, land reform and redistribution, and the current agricultural extension situation in

the Northern Province.

Smallholder Farming in South Africa
ﬂLSLOl’!

The agricultural Situation that exists in South Africa arose from the political
ideology that black farmers’ opportunities should be limited because they were creating
“unfair” competition for their white counterparts (Harley & Fotheringham, 1999). White
farmers argued that, “because of labor Shortages, they could not compete with their
African counterparts who had lower costs” (South Africa White Policy Paper, 1999).
This Situation prompted the government to construct a system of agricultural extension
that inﬂuenced success and failure through institutionalized laws. Those who were
privileged to beneﬁt from the government-supported system of credit, technology, and
training were most likely to succeed (N. M. Mollel, personal communication, 2001).
Those who were unable to ﬁt into this stringent box were less likely to succeed. Laws
such as the Group Areas Act (Act 40 of 1950) forced physical separation between the
races by creating separate residential areas for people of different races. This led to
forced removals of people living in “wrong” areas and ultimately forced blacks to move

onto designated land, which exacerbated the situation (Harley & F otheringham, 1999).

16

In 1913, a critical law was passed, the Natives’ Land Act, which “formed the
basis on which South Africa was divided” (R. Pillay, personal communication, 2001). In
essence, this act divided South Africa into living areas for blacks and whites. Blacks
were forced onto reserves, a mere 7% of the land, whereas whites had access to all other
open areas. The intention of the law was “to swell the supply of African labor, which
would obviously be increased by restricting their opportunities as independent producers”
(Harley & Fotheringham, 1999). The restrictions on tenancy (i.e., hiring of land to
Africans) were explicitly connected with this law. It increased the number of laborers
tenfold because it forced many cash tenants and sharecroppers into labor tenancy. The
inﬂuence of this law trickled down into other agricultural policies such as land-use
patterns to prevent degradation, acts to increase the supply of cheap labor, and separate

extension services to limit the quality of technological information from the universities

(Harley & F otheringham, 1999).

Current Situation

Small-scale farming in Southern Africa has been the economic staple for more
than 10 million people residing on only 12% of the land. These people have been
underrepresented in government, misrepresented within the larger society, and denied
access to technological resources (Hedden-Dunkhorst & Mollel, 1999). They are both
males and females, with an eclectic blend of farm sizes, farm holdings, and production
yields. These smallholder farmers have endured the hardships of rural life while
maintaining the fate of rural farming and agriculture. Through their plight, they have
unknowingly created a self-sustaining system of services and employment. Within this
system they improvised to provide food and shelter for their families and communities.

As they created a system that worked for them, they competed within the larger context
17

of agriculture among white commercial farmers. Although these white farmers “received
substantial support in the form of subsidies, grants and other aid for fencing, dams,
houses, veterinary and horticultural advice, as well as subsidized rail rates, special credit
facilities and tax relief” (Van Rooyen & Botha, 1994), small-scale farmers continued to
surmount these barriers by using their resources, knowledge, and innovativeness.

The critical Situation of small-scale farming in the Northern Province of South
Africa has resulted from the dichotomy created by this dualistic system. Before the 1994

political dispensation, smallholder farming was safeguarded by the homeland

 

governments and tribal authority councils. This safe haven brought about a system that

granted preferential treatment to white farmers and left substandard conditions and r
resources to black farmers. This structure weakened the spirit of black farmers while
strengthening the power and position of white farmers. It is critical to acknowledge this
relationship between farmers and power because it formed the basis for the past and
present extension system (Northern Province Department of Land and Agriculture, 2000;
E. M. Zwane, personal communication, 2001).

Smallholder farming in the context of the Northern Province is unique in that
more than 80% of the population live in rural areas and make a signiﬁcant living from
agriculture. More than 90% of these rural households are involved in agricultural
activities (Hagmann, Chuma, Murwira, & Connolly, 1998), including both crop and
livestock production. This integrated system of crop and livestock production has
ﬂourished for years and sustained many lives, but it is threatened by several economic
and environmental factors. The drought of 1998 and the ﬂoods of 1999 severely
damaged the land and caused people to consider other forms of sustenance. The

downsizing and restructuring of the government and its input services such as extension

18

have negatively affected the quality and number of services provided to these
marginalized farmers.

Although smallholder farmers vary in how they acquire knowledge and
information, they are similar in their approach to extension, interactions with each other,
and basic farming activities (Hedden-Dunkhorst & Mollel, 1999). One common
characteristic is that smallholder households are involved in raising crops, or crops and
livestock; these farming activities account for about 10% of the household income. At
least one adult (over the age of 15) in the household is involved in farming. The average
plot is .05 to 5 hectares.

Although it might seem that these characteristics would denote a homogeneous
population, they have actually created an extremely heterogeneous agricultural
community. Further, this marginalized group of farmers has had other experiences that
have created a network of problems that ultimately have affected their livelihoods (Small-
Scale Farmers Association Report, 1997). These problems include poorly maintained
irrigation infrastructure, insufﬁcient irrigation water pumps, poor irrigation practices,
limited knowledge of what alternative crops to cultivate, poor access to agri-support
services (extension, mechanization, credit, inputs, and so on), poor access to market
information, insufﬁcient farmland, rivalry among political organizations affecting
farmers and their organizations, and uncertainty about the future costs of irrigation water
and electricity with the removal of subsidies (IDEAA, 2000; Small-Scale Farmers

Association Report, 1997).

Economic Stability and Poveml
Nearly 16 million South Africans (72% of the population) live in poverty, with

the highest incidences in rural areas and female headed households. Nearly 70% of those

19

living in poverty are from rural areas. “Poverty in rural areas is associated with
agricultural policies which persistently marginalized small-scale black farmers as their
access to resources such as land, credit and technical know-how was curtailed” (Machete
& Mollel, 2000). Food insecurity and poverty are highly correlated, and this association
must be addressed when speaking of black small-scale farmers. For example, in 1993 it
was estimated that only 26% of rural African households had access to land for
cultivation and that regular wages were the primary source of income for only 32% of the
poor. The central challenge for agriculture in alleviating poverty and ensuring food
security for the rural population is therefore to contribute to improved livelihoods and
employment through services such as extension.

Closer examination of poverty in South Africa’s provinces shows that the highest
poverty rates are in the Northern Province and Free State. This does not mean that
poverty is widespread throughout the country, but that poverty is greatest in these
provinces. In the Northern Province, about 62% of households or 70% of individuals are
living in poverty (1995 ﬁgures). In that province, the poverty gap (2.9 million rand) is
21% of the provincial gross geographic product.

In general, rural households in South Africa can be described as having a “legacy
of squandered assets and inappropriate production and investment strategies” (May et al.,
1996, p. 21). These Bantustan areas are marked by unequal distributions of land,
resources, markets, and credit, as well as distorted economic and social decisions.
Speciﬁcally, in the Northern Province, the poverty rate is highest in the rural or Bantu
areas. In contrast, Guateng Province, home to the economic and political seats of the
country, evidences a higher level of human development, with 30% of households or

41% of individuals living in poverty and a poverty gap of 917 million rand.

20

To understand the situation of rural households in South Africa, particularly the
Northern Province, it is important to consider indicators in addition to a human-
development index. According to May et a1. (1996), basic-need indicators provide a
multidimensional perspective of many rural households. In rural South Africa, for
instance, 21.9% of households fall in the lowest rank on a composite scale of the basic-
needs indicators of housing, sanitation, water, and energy. Almost 45% are below the
nutritional poverty line of 1,815 calories per adult per day, and almost 57% fall below the
nutritional poverty line of 2,100 calories per adult.

The majority of the population represented in the above-cited statistics live in the
former homeland areas in the Northern Province. Living conditions for the
overwhelming majority of people in this area are below the poverty level, according to
most comprehensive measures. Houses are poorly constructed due to the lack of
available materials and resources, many people cannon obtain clean and usable water,
and wood is used as the major energy source (E. M. Zwane, personal communication,
2001). Access to goods and services is inhibited by the lack of tarred roads and reliable
transportation. Overall, the marginalized rural population, especially the smallholder
farmers, in the Northern Province are destined for inequality and deprivation. Their
quality of life is constrained because of a lack of policies and programs designed to
address these issues. If efforts were made to improve the organizations providing these

services, it could have an impact on rural farmers’ lives.

Agricultural Extension in South Africa
Be innin s of Extension Work
Early extension work in South Aﬁica constituted a basic tool in government

programs and projects to bring about two signiﬁcant changes in agriculture: to improve
21

agricultural production and to raise living standards in rural areas. Through the combined
services of researchers, farmers, and farm organizations, programs were implemented to
bring about changes in local communities (Bembridge, 1993). Extension was deﬁned as
a process of working with rural people in order to improve their standard of living. This
process was carried out over time, and accomplished through various projects and
activities. Although the overall goal was to improve the agricultural community as a
whole, the needs of two agricultural sectors had to be addressed. Differences in these
sectors caused difﬁculties in program delivery and implementation and gave rise to

lengthy discussions about the effectiveness of extension.

Extension Services for White Farmers am
the Commercial Farming Sector

In 1924, the ﬁrst Division of Agriculture and Extension Education was developed
under Colonel Hdu Toit. A year later he appointed the ﬁrst 10 extension workers, with a
goal to provide services to farmers through farmers’ associations and show societies. At
the outset, South African extension resembled the United States land-grant model, with
extension agents at the university level under the guidance of subject-matter specialists.
Throughout the 19203 and I930S, their work was supported through demonstrations and
ﬁlms.

With advances in transportation, extension workers began to travel across the
county in demonstration trains, delivering the latest developments in agriculture. Similar
to the United States system, home economists delivered information to farmers’ wives
and showed them, through demonstrations, how to enhance their homes. Many
individuals began to see the effects of this system and decided to reorganize into

cooperative demonstrations because “seeing is believing” (Bembridge, 1998).

22

With the success of this program, the extension system began to offer formal
courses for white extension staff at the University of Pretoria under the direction of
Professor F. F. H. Kolbe. This system ﬂourished and spread into many parts of South

Africa, but it was not as advantageous for farmers in rural and homeland areas.

Extension Services in Rurﬂand Developing Areas

Missionaries from the Netherlands and Britain laid the groundwork for extension
in rural and homeland areas. Unlike their commercial counterparts, these agriculturalists
did not have unlimited resources, organized manpower, or a supportive government. The
development of extension arose from the need to improve agriculture in the Transkei
area, which helped in the formation of the ﬁrst agricultural school in 1905. The
formative years, from 1913 to 1918, helped to establish a foundation and pave the way
for more active steps toward agricultural development. In subsequent years, the
extension service for blacks blossomed to include the other homelands, yet it encountered
due to discriminatory legislative acts. Nevertheless, from 1919 until 1949, major
advancements took place, such as the establishment of Fort Cox Agricultural College in
Ciskei, to educate black farmers, and the Native Trust and Land Act No. 18 of 1936.
There were several other accomplishments in the ensuing years, but the fact remained
that there were two separate delivery systems to meet the needs of commercial and rural
farmers (South Africa White Policy Paper, 1999). As the country moved toward
abolishing apartheid, the need to change the extension system was evident.

The movement to revitalize and restructure the extension system began before the
new government assumed control in 1994. Individuals working within the system
realized that change had to take place in order for South Africa to compete in the global

market. As noted in a paper on the assessment of changes in extension that were to

23

occur, “they would need to reorganize their infrastructure which disseminates valuable
information to the agricultural community, i.e., Extension services.” This transformation
of services entailed a holistic approach that engaged the rural extension worker through
communication, social processes, and leadership (Carey, 2001). If extension workers are
able to participate more effectively with their clients, the rural farmers, they will be more
productive conduits of information, ultimately improving the farmers’ quality of life
(Jiggins, 1997).
Congrarison of the Two Extension Systems
in South Africa

Extension in South Africa has been deﬁned as a system that “bridges the gap
between available technology and farmers’ practices through the provision of technical
advice, information and training” (Northern Province Department of Land and
Agriculture, 2000). Although this was the case for commercial farmers, the efforts of
extension services were intended to develop rural farmers within the constraints of the
apartheid system by providing limited and unqualiﬁed services. An example of this was
the Tomlinson Commission’s recommendation to improve or rehabilitate schemes, with
the object of stabilizing and developing agriculture in the present and former homelands.
Whereas commercial farmers received inputs, credit, and other services to increase their
agricultural yields and overall contributions to the South African gross domestic product,
rural farmers were unable to receive any assistance or to make economic contributions
(Bembridge, 1998).

The distinctions between the two separate extension systems of white commercial
farmers and farmers in the homelands are noticeable (T. Prudence, personal

communication, 2001). The former service comprised relatively small numbers of

24

generally well-qualiﬁed staff who usually were university graduates, current information,
a low farmer-to-extension-staff ratio, and a technological understanding of the
commercial farmer. The success of the “white” extension system was a result of quality
inputs, as well as the homogeneity of the approximately 60,000 clients (South Africa
White Policy Paper, 1999). This service was well focused and resourced, and the
workers were well trained. Homeland extension agents, in contrast, usually lacked
technical training, had large farmer-to-staff ratios, and had limited access to technical
information, resources, and services privileged to white extension staff (Ficarelli &
Hagerrnan, 2000). AS a result, today most of these workers are well aware of the
negligible inﬂuence they have on agriculture and the quality of life for farmers. Today,
the extension system has been collapsed into one that is intended to meet the needs of all
farmers, with a special focus on rural farmers.

The lack of extension services provided to rural or small-scale farmers in the
Northern Province has been the focus of many discussions since the 1994 elections
(E. M. Zwane, personal communication, 2001). Discussions have centered not only on
inequalities in extension services, but also on other socio-political issues that encompass
the entire extension system. Land reform and redistribution, infrastructure development,
training and development, policy formulation, and funding are concerns that many
stakeholders realize must be addressed in order to grasp the entire scope of the Northern

Provincial extension system.

RestructuringAgriculture in the Northern Province
As Jiggins (1997) noted,

In the current South African context, it is premature to settle on a uniform
approach to the organization, management and funding of extension, and
mistaken to expect that any one approach will be effective in meeting the diverse

25

and, to an extent, divergent needs. An experimental approach, testing the most

efﬁcient and effective options to meet new policy goals, is strongly

recommended.
For true organizational change to take place in South Africa, stakeholders will need to see
the importance of agriculture in all farming sectors and move beyond a monolithic
perspective. Emerging and small-scale farmers across the country have begun to receive
full support. Postapartheid policies endorsed by the African National Congress in 1992,
which provided land to new and existing farmers to ensure equity, have been
implemented and enforced, albeit with some degree of resistance (Shackleton et al.,
2000). Provincial governments have assumed multiple roles such as enforcer, educator,
funder, and supporter to guarantee that small-scale farmers beneﬁt from policies and
programs (N. M. Mollel, personal communication, 2001). Coordinated efforts between
organizations have begun to take the form of partnerships rather than being a chance
occurrence. Attempts have been made to have partnerships become multidimensional, as
evidenced by work through the RDP, which provides guidelines, funding, and

organizational structure for rural land reform programs throughout the country (Land &

Agricultural Policy Centre, 1996).

_L_apd Reform and Redistribution
South Africa’s land disputes parallel those of many other sub-Saharan countries
that have been plagued by the social upheaval of land reform and redistribution.
Zimbabwe in 1980, Kenya in 1963, and Ethiopia in 1974 all faced issues of land transfer
after political uprisings. Policies that address the issue of land reform play an important
role in addressing and alleviating the current issues regarding extension. Past policies

implemented by the national government and other nongovernmental organizations have

26

helped shape the current path that extension has taken. Immiserisation was created
among the black majority, and political and social prestige became associated with land.

South Africa, particularly the Northern Province, is in a precarious situation when
it comes to the issue of land reform and reorganization because much of the population
sits on white commercial land or in the former homeland area. Some of the things that
South Africa can learn from the experiences of other countries that have dealt with land
reform are as follows:

1. Authorities must avoid making unrealistic and extravagant promises regarding
land, as the expectations bear a high political cost.

2. Success of a land-redistribution program depends on a strong political
commitment and a transparent process involving all the relevant stakeholders.

3. Land redistribution must be implemented soon after agreement has been
reached between parties. Otherwise, bureaucratic bungling and legal and ﬁnancial
constraints that bog down the implementation increase both the ﬁnancial and political
costs.

4. Individual small-scale commercial farmers can be as efﬁcient as large-scale
farmers if appropriate support and incentive measures are in place.

5. Land reform must be viewed as a part of an integrated rural development
strategy and must not be undertaken in isolation from the development of rural
infrastructures and social services.

de Villiers summed up the governmental attitude and action needed to make a
signiﬁcant difference in rural households by putting the issue in the context of
sustainability and economic contributions. Provincial government must place priority on

agriculture as it relates to economics and politics. In the Northern Province, much of the

27

effort for land reorganization has moved beyond the Department of Agriculture and into
the hands of nongovernmental grassroots organizations, allowing for universities to be
included in the process.

Land-redistribution programs in the Northern Province have not had a successful
track record, as indicated by the several agricultural programmers interviewed during the
course of this research. These programs were seen as being disorganized and ineffective.
The need for stronger leadership was a concern for many interviewees, and it was noted
on several occasions that the programs’ inability to meet the needs of the rural
communities was troubling (E. Lethsolo, personal communication, 2001'). In the
Northern Province, land-redistribution programs were organized into workable categories
to help the rural poor, emerging farmers, labor tenants, farm workers, and women.
Because these groups resided in rural areas, the following additional guidelines were
needed to ensure that the process was not impeded:

1. Restitution of land rights—Communities relocated due to apartheid legislation
could claim restoration of their lost land by December 1999, at which time only 64,000
rural and urban claims had been submitted (5,500 in the Northern Province).

2. Traditional land tenure system—Land reform was to take place in the former
homelands to secure more land for commercial farmers.

3. Application of policies—Speciﬁc policies have been implemented to assist
with the actual transfer of land.

Actual implementation of the land reform policies has proven to be the most
successful, but this has been on a limited basis. The method used was to implement land
grants, which were formed by the Community Property Association (CPA). Qualifying

households were then advised by graduate students from UNIN to form commercial

28

farming groups within the legal framework of the CPA to access 16,000 land grants and
15,000 rand (equivalent to US $1,500). In 2001, nearly 30 CPAS had been formed in the
Northern Province, but they had poor production output. Many of the volunteers who
worked with the program did not believe it was viable:

They [the farmers] are just being greedy because they don’t want to work on the

land. They form these groups and then collect their checks and then wonder at the

end of the day why don’t I have something to show. They didn’t take our advice
on farming practices and said they weren’t going to try it anyway—it was a waste
of their time to learn something new from someone so young. (Staff volunteer for
the RDP)
This attitude compelled many people who worked with the program to stop making rural
farm visits and to give up on the rural population, a sign that the government must
provide intervention and support. The extension service has the potential to support the
provincial government in its quest to redistribute land and revitalize the economy. It will
require training and development on the part of all agencies involved and a conscientious
effort to work as partners, which has been a difficult task in the past.

For agriculture to be proven an important product to the economy, attitudes will
need to shift toward the economic capability that agriculture promises for the entire
country. Small-scale farmers can provide an important service in the ﬁeld of agriculture
by helping to reduce import costs and contributing toward food-price stability in rural

areas. In addition, small-scale farmers hold a key to helping alleviate poverty and

unemployment among many rural households (F icarelli & Hagerrnan, 2000).

Provincial Restructuring

The shift of the provincial government to help small-scale farmers has been
recognized in several policy papers and documents in the last 5 years. The government

has seen the limitations of existing programs that have focused on groups and clusters of

29

farmers. Now the focus has shifted toward individual farmers and their needs, as
evidenced by the following measures:

1. Increasing disadvantaged black people’s access to rural land.

2. Facilitating the transfer of 15 million ha of rural land from the state and white
commercial farmers to the new beneﬁciaries.

3. Improving food security and rural incomes from agricultural production.

4. Stimulating economic growth and development of rural areas through
increased agricultural production.

5. Empowering beneﬁciaries of land grants by assisting their development into
farming enterprises.

6. Supporting the restructuring of the dualistic agricultural sector into a range of
farm-unit sizes.

In conclusion, the land-reform program will have to focus on reorganization and
support of rural farmers. The lack of a commercial sector, markets, land, and resources
has limited the capacity of these farmers. Training and support will have to be a strong
component of the land-reform program, if it is to prove successful. In addition, the
program will need to work closely with extension staff and personnel in rural areas to
ensure that the baseline needs of rural farmers are being met. Bilateral agreements must
remain a priority for «all those in government and other institutions involved in the
reorganization of the Northern Province. Rural farmers’ absence from the commercial
sector for more than 50 years has limited their technical knowledge and skills, thereby
making them much more vulnerable to the pitfalls inherent in reorganization and
redevelopment of agriculture (Participants of Train-the-Trainer Northern Provincial

Extension Program, personal communication, 2001).

30

Current Agricultural Extension Situation in the Northern Province

Currently, the extension service in the Northern Province is a unit of the
Department of Agriculture located in Pietersburg, the political center of the province.
Logistically, it is housed at a central location, but is inaccessible to many farmers and
extension workers who live outside the greater Pietersburg area. The unsupportive nature
of the extension service has caused many rural farmers and extension workers to lose
faith in the quality of assistance it can provide (Extension workers in the Northern
Province, personal communication, 2001).

To receive support, farmers sometimes travel to Pietersburg or Louis Trichardt,
cities that are several kilometers from their homes. To the average person, this may seem
like a reasonable distance to travel, but for the rural farmer, the cost of such a journey can
be prohibitive.

The extension service in the Northern Province is responsible for delivering
technical agricultural information to more than 10,000 farmers, which is nearly 25% of
the population. To meet these needs, the Department of Agriculture has decided to shiﬁ
the focus from a top-down approach to a participatory, interactive approach between
farmers and extension workers. The goal is to become a more integrated system and to
meet the needs of emerging and smallholder farmers. The language of agricultural
policies has been changed to reﬂect the new direction for the department. This is the
framework within which the Department of Agriculture was working at the time of this
study. The key general principles the Department developed around speciﬁc agricultural
policy areas in the Northern Province are listed in Figure 2.1. Principles speciﬁc to the
areas of agriculture, technology, research, extension, and training are highlighted in

Figure 2.2.

31

I The important role of agriculture in the reconstruction and development of the Northern
Transvaal’s economy and particularly rural society will be recognized.

0 Agricultural support programs and services will be designed with the purpose of
improving the quality of life and productivity of farmers and farm workers.

0 Government agricultural programs, including the rendering of services to farmers, will
contribute to the independence and self-reliance of all participants in the agricultural
sector.

0 National and particularly household food security are important and will be addressed
through multidimensional strategies.

0 The department will maintain formal liaison with organized agricultural civil society,
national and provincial departments, and other structures.

0 Farming systems and the incentives by which they are driven Should be based on sound
principles and practices that are sustainable and environmentally, economically, socially,
scientiﬁcally, and politically appropriate.

0 Afﬁrmative action programs will be focused on low-income South Africans who were
previously denied access to opportunities in agriculture; will equitably ensure access to
agricultural resources, credit, and farmer-support services; will be based on merit; and
will be implemented in a transparent manner.

0 Services to farmers will be rendered in an equitable manner, discouraging existing and
potentially discriminatory practices, and allowing the beneﬁts of development to be more
widely distributed, taking into account that access to resources, scale of production, use
of purchased inputs, and volume of marketable produce differ from farmer to farmer.

o Governmental programs will be scientiﬁcally and practically planned and executed in
consultation with farmers and other stakeholders.

o The needs of farmers, especially new entrants and small-scale farmers, will be met
through the reorientation and training of trainers, extension and research workers.

0 Opportunities created by international trade will be maximized in the interests of the local
agricultural industry.

0 Priority will be given to policies and strategies to identify and protect the high-potential
agricultural natural resources (especially soil, grazing land, and water of the Northern
Transvaal Province).

Figare 2.1: General principles outlined by the Department of Agriculture regarding the
reorganization of agriculture in the Northern Province. (Adapted from the Draﬁ Policy
Paper for Agricultural Reorganizational Development for the Northern Province of South
Africa, 1999.)

32

0 Researchers, extension workers, and farmers will be part of a dynamic, holistic
system.

0 Research programs, technology development, and appropriate facilities therefore
will be planned in collaboration with other support services and farmers.

0 Resource allocation to agricultural (and basic) research will be appropriately
balanced and be based on farmers’ priorities.

0 Agricultural research, training, and extension will be recognized as a long-term
investment and will be best achieved by cooperation between government,
research institutions, farmer organizations, and the private sector.

0 The funding of need-driven research, extension, and training will be the primary
responsibility of government, with greater priority given to small-scale farming.

o The additional work burden and time constraints placed on women due to their
domestic responsibilities will be accommodated and ameliorated in the design and
delivery of services and infrastructure to resource-poor farmers.

- Agricultural extension will support farmers to make their own production and
marketing decisions by providing appropriate information on a wide range of
alternatives.

0 The local knowledge of farmers will be recognized and validated, and applied
research and technology development programs will complement the existing
knowledge of farmers.

0 Special efforts will be made to gain access to successful research elsewhere,
particularly on the African continent.

0 Extension and research staff will be accountable to clients through the inclusion
of farmer organizations and emerging agricultural structures in decision-making
processes.

F'gare 2.2: Agriculture, research, training, and extension guidelines outlined by the
Department of Agriculture toward the reorganization of agriculture in the Northern
Province. (Adapted from the Draft Policy Paper for Agricultural Reorganizational
Development for the Northern Province of South Africa, 1999.)

The Northern Province Department of Land and Agriculture’s view on
reorganization and redevelopment has moved to a holistic approach that incorporates

industry, educational institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and the government.

33

It has expressed the importance of all components working together to beneﬁt the entire
country, but with an emphasis on the majority population (Northern Province Department
of Land and Agriculture, 2000). Because rural farmers have been the most deprived, the
implementation of policies and programs to help them is critical to their individual and
collective success.

Smallholder farmers throughout the province have come to realize that rural
development depends on the effective delivery of extension services. The needs of
Speciﬁc clients within the rural agricultural spectrum—farm workers, communities
leasing land, and labor tenants—must be recognized. Although rural development and
extension are different in nature, both are intended to meet the speciﬁc needs of clients in
rural areas.

As experienced in several other sub-Saharan rural farming communities,
extension’s realization of its potential to meet the needs of farmers must include a set of
indicators to measure success (IDEAA, 1998). Many have deﬁned these indicators by
examining improvements in decision-making skills, an increase in capacity building,
positive changes in cropping, increased food production, and an increase in marketing
skills (Small-Scale Farmers Association Report, 1997). These indicators have provided
sound information on which to base continued training and reorganization in several
other countries, such as Zimbabwe and Malawi, and could prove effective for South

Aﬁica.

Program Redevelopment
Some researchers and organizations have suggested that change in the delivery of
extension services must come about through behavioral change. Change in this context is

defined as movement beyond the linear model of transfer and knowledge theory toward

34

an understanding of farmers’ needs. As Roling (1996) noted, “The mandate of science

would no longer be satisﬁed by scientists themselves developing knowledge for people.

Instead, a science mandate would include helping people to develop knowledge.” A

suggested perspective is the farming/livelihood system (awareness creation), which

speciﬁes targeting a system wider than farming and household systems, but includes

socio-organizational and socio-cultural components (see Figure 2.3).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Livelihood System
(Farm Household System)
The plationn for decision making
F
1 l L
Farm System Economic System Sociocultural/Organizational System
B Crop Production System — Production-Consumption System — Family System
— Off-Fann Income System L Village System
Li Soil/Crop Management
L institutional System
H WalerlFodder Management ~ Formal employment
- Animal Husbandry - Self-employment
+- Livestock Production System
— Food Collection System

 

 

 

 

F'gare 2.3: Livelihood system. (Adapted from the Northern Province Department of

Land and Agriculture, 2000.)

This model for improvement incorporates the ideas of participation, collective

action, empowerment, and institution building to generate change. This ﬂows into a

another supportive model known as the participatory extension approach, which suggests

that, by including participatory technology, individuals such as extension staff and rural

35

farmers will engage in interactive participation, become empowered, and recognize
indigenous knowledge and local institutions. This involvement must enable extension to
work with rural farmers in the following capacities: (a) conduct problem and needs
analyses; (b) strengthen local institutions; (c) plan agricultural activities at the community
level; ((1) evaluate, review, and share knowledge; (e) facilitate farmer-to-farmer
extension; and (0 provide knowledge and options (F icarelli & Hagerman, 1997). The
divide that currently exists limits the work that can be done between rural farmers and
extension staff.

A technical, social, and economic bridge is needed to span this divide and reach
much of the rural population. Moving past sociopolitical issues will be pivotal to
reaching rural households and farmers, implementing policies and goals, and achieving
major objectives and goals. Current issues such as lack of credit, poor resources, lack of
transportation and communication services, lack of training, and lack of regionally
deﬁned goals will cause the organization to move backwards and continue to perpetuate
the dualistic nature of extension services between white and black farmers and among

those classiﬁed as commercial, emerging, and rural.

Strum

The review of literature was organized into the following conceptual areas:
smallholder farming, economic stability and poverty, agricultural extension in South
Africa, land reform and redistribution, and the current agricultural extension situation in
the Northern Province. There is a dearth of research on the perceptions of rural farmers
in South Africa, due to the past discriminatory laws of apartheid. The information that

was available concerned the background and events that have led to the current situation.

36

 

The need for formative information from farmers in the era of change and restructuring

and the lack of precedents in the literature underscored the need for this study.

37

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Study Design
The Researcher’s PM
Denzin and Lincoln (1994) deﬁned qualitative research as a study that can
alleviate the imbalance found in quantitative research by providing information about the
context of the study. This interpretive type of study, which provides “rich insight into

human behavior,” was appropriate for the present research on the perceptions of

 

smallholder farmers in the Northern Province of South Aﬁica. r

As Guba and Lincoln (1994) noted, “All research is interpretive.” Therefore, a
researcher must identify his or her belief system from the outset. The “value-determined
nature of inquiry” (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), found within the critical theory family,
provides the researcher with distinct ontological, epistemological, and methodological
beliefs, all of which help to guide the researcher to develop a sophisticated and informed
study.

Critical theory mixes several sets of alternative paradigms into one larger
“umbrella theme.” This allows the researcher to methodically choose a paradigm to
complement the research. This unique feature constitutes an epistemological difference
from other paradigms.

In this particular case, the subjective epistemological belief was based on the fact
that the researcher and those being studied were connected, a transactional linkage. This
subjectivist situation creates value-mediated ﬁndings. My previous position as an

extension agent enabled me to understand the values of those being investigated, thereby

38

“inﬂuencing the inquiry” (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). The interaction between the
smallholder farmers and me created an association that is not found in other paradigms.
The epistemological position also assumes that the knowledge gained is dependent on the
interactions between the researcher and those being investigated. In other words, the
information I gained was directly related to my interactions with the smallholder farmers,
extension officers, and other resource persons involved in the study.

(“y’kMy ontological position was based in historical realism, speciﬁcally, that the

\

\
\L

present situation was created by cultural, social, economic, ethnic, and political factors.
These dynamics required me to examine the extension system and smallholder farmers

within the framework created by the previous and current political dispensations.

gise Study Researﬂ

My basis in critical theory necessitated that the research be performed as a
“dialogue between the investigator and the subjects of the inquiry” (Guba & Lincoln,
1984). I carried out this transactional inquiry by conducting a case study that allowed me
to embrace structures created by the past and to provide knowledge for the future.

Case studies are reports of research on a speciﬁc organization, program, or
process (Creswell, 1998). They are unique because they must meet certain criteria not
found in other traditions of inquiry. These distinguishable markers create bounded
contextual situations that are event and/or program speciﬁc and are context situated
within original settings. In addition, case studies provide a rich story that details the lived
experiences of the studied group. This key marker is what makes the present research so
valuable to, rural agricultural communities throughout South Africa.

Historically, case studies have been a common form of research in qualitative

inquiry (Stake, 1995). They provide an opportunity for the researcher to focus on a
39

 

particular “case,” rather than the methods. Paying more attention to the case than the
methods allowed me to conduct a more intensive and in-depth study. Within the South
African context, I was able to “seek what is common and what is particular about the
case” (Stoufer, 1941), the result of which was portraying something uncommon. This
uncommon discovery can be approached only when the researcher works within the
boundaries of the case’s historical background and the physical setting; awareness of the
political, economic, and legal contexts; and recognition of other studies on the issue.
These criteria are often used to determine fulﬁlling case studies. If researchers are
committed to these points, they will realize that their work is not for the advancement of
science, but rather for the understanding of what is important about that- case within its
own context. Theorists and researchers who conduct quantitative research often miss this
point.

The rounded approach to case studies allows researchers to enter into the “case,”
listen to the story, observe the events and relationships, and then write the story according
to their lenses, but only within the given cultural, socioeconomic, and historical contexts.
A rich description of the current situation is developed that enables researchers to work
within the environment of the phenomenon and provides for experiences, stories, and
examples to be woven into the research and integrated into the framework of the study.
Lincoln and Guba (1985) made the point that “much qualitative research is based on a
holistic view that social phenomena, human dilemmas, and the nature of cases are
situational and inﬂuenced by happenings of many kinds.” This holistic approach to
understanding a phenomenon is what makes case studies unique. Given the complexities

of the Northern Province, I determined that a holistic approach would embrace the

40

 

historical and political nature of extension education for these particular farmers and
allow their story to be heard.

The nature of the research requires that the researcher ask critical questions that
shape how the speciﬁc research methods are conceived and implemented throughout a
study (Creswell, 1998). Although data collection is basic to all qualitative studies, in
case studies the researcher must gather large amounts of data in order to develop a
convincing and accurate story. Various modes of collecting data can be used in a case
study, such as observations, interviews, documents, and artifacts. These are all central to =‘.

qualitative research, but in terms of case studies, they are unique to the particular

 

situation being researched. Case studies are known for their use of multiple methods of _'
data collection in order to articulate the in-depth story. For the purposes of this study, I

collected data from several sources within the selected communities in the Northern

Province. Using a variety of data-collection strategies allowed me to gather information

on the cultural nuances and experiences of others, while remaining ﬂexible, practical, and

ethical.

Given the phenomenon that has been created through the delivery of extension
education programs in the Northern Province, a case study was determined to be the best
approach for conducting this study. This approach was appropriate because it allowed
me to focus on a speciﬁc community within a particular period of time, as well as to
embrace the cultural nuances and ethos within this area that have been affected by
apartheid. Extension education and its relationship to black smallholder farmers was the
critical phenomenon in this case study. As Stake (1995) stated, case studies are bounded
by behavioral patterns useful in the concepts for specifying the case. My interest and

concern was in hearing the voices of these small-scale farmers or, in Stake’s words, in

41

hearing “the stories of those living the case.” This study was not intended to build theory
or explain an abstract construct, but to provide insight into the extension system and its
relationship to black small-scale farmers in South Africa. As Stake said, a case study is
conducted “mainly to provide insight into an issue or to redraw a generalization.”
Historically, black small-scale farmers have been an afterthought in terms of
support and enhancement through the agricultural communities in South Africa. Recent
restructuring of the provincial government has made this an opportune time to conduct
research that may provide valuable information to policymakers as well as stakeholders

in agriculture. Information gained through this study can be used in planning and

 

implementing policies at both the provincial and national levels. Given the lack of
research in this area, the study may also serve as an impetus for others to examine the

conditions of small-scale farmers in other parts of South Africa.

The Studv Population

Two villages deﬁned as dry and irrigated land areas in the Northern Province
were selected for several reasons. First, due to the topography of the Northern Province,
the chosen locations were accessible by local transportation and were within a lOO-mile
radius of the base site of Pietersburg. Pietersburg was chosen as the central point because
it was the agricultural headquarters for the Northern Province and provided access to
resource ~sites such as UNIN and the Northern Provincial Department of Agriculture.
Second, people in both villages used the local language of Northern Sotho, so I did not
have to obtain another translator or attempt to understand another ethnic group. Finally,
the farmers in this area have been involved in university- and government-sponsored

programs, which made them more accessible for study. My experience working in

42

extension programs and with farmers in the United States enhanced my credibility with
the participants.

Because farmers and the extension organization would be investigated, the
following selection criteria were used: F anners understood pre- and postapartheid
legislation as it pertained to agriculture, had plots before the political dispensation of
1994, had contact with extension staff/personnel within the past year, and would be able
to understand and answer my questions in Sotho. Descriptive information from UNIN’s
Agricultural Economics Department was used to compile a list of areas that met these
criteria. The list was divided into two categories, dry-land areas (lacked a major water
source) and irrigation areas (a water source was in close proximity to plots/farms).

Next, target sites were identiﬁed from this list. This was accomplished by
consulting with faculty and staff at UNIN, either directly or by telephone. Each person
had worked on projects in these areas, which gave them direct contact with the farmers as
well as the village chiefs and councilmen. One person, in particular, was responsible for
implementing and directing programs in the irrigated communities. Another person
served as interim dean for the Faculty of Agriculture, which gave him access to and
knowledge of all of the selected communities. Efforts were made to include advisors
from different departments and projects across the university.

Many sites were recommended, but the overwhelming majority of named areas
were those that had received minimal funding and support from the government and were
classiﬁed as extremely resource-poor communities. Final decisions about target sites
were made by considering (a) accessibility of chiefs and the Tribal Authority Council,
(b) the translator’s understanding of the local language, (0) the farmers’ willingness to

participate in the study, ((1) available resources for travel, (e) inclusion of one dry-land

43

 

site, (f) inclusion of one irrigated site, and (g) local involvement with the Agricultural
Resource Development Corporation (ARDC) in the irrigated area.

At each of the two chosen sites, the following people were involved in the study:
the Tribal Authority Council, the chief, the extension ofﬁcer, and the farmers. The Tribal
Authority Council was the gatekeeper for the entire community and served as the
mouthpiece for all citizens. The Council was involved in the research by default because,
without its approval, the research could not have been conducted. The approval process F
could have been prolonged, but the reputation of researchers and staff from UNIN helped

the chief decide to approve the research. ’

 

The extension agents were the key individuals who provided access to the

F:

farmers. Their inclusion in the study was integral because they provided background
information on both the community and the farmers, had knowledge of key concerns to
farmers, and were able to articulate ideas and concepts in English. The extension agents
had unique and somewhat different perspectives on the topic of the extension system.
Although their role was as disseminators of agricultural information, they also had a
primary role of connecting with the farmers. Most had done this over the past 10 years
and were able to understand and explain the farmers’ situation within the complex
historical framework of the South African rural agricultural community. The
perspectives of the extension agents were used to triangulate the data collected in
interviews with the farmers, thereby enhancing the internal validity of the data (Miles &

Huberman, 1994).

Site Selection and Recruitment
After the two target sites were selected, I asked two students and a faculty

member with personal connections at one of the sites (the dry—land area) to accompany

44

me when I met with the tribal chief. At this initial meeting, the chief was not present, but
his wife spoke on his behalf. My companions explained the nature of the research, the
length of time needed in the community, and how the community would beneﬁt from the
research. They also explained that I was a graduate student from the United States and
would be using a translator who was familiar with the local vernacular. At this time, the
consent form was translated for the chief’s wife, who could then explain it to the Council
and the chief. We agreed that I would return in 3 weeks to meet with the extension

ofﬁcer and to begin interviews with selected farmers. This exact time frame was set

 

because the village was beginning koma‘and would not be accessible to outsiders. The

 

“agricultural person”2 would choose the farmers for the study from the Mamaila
community, located within the greater area of Sekgosese. Chief Mamaila’s wife agreed
to tell her husband as well as the headmen, who would then deliver my request to the
agricultural person.

At the second village, Straydkraal, the tribal council had been informed by a
faculty member in the Agricultural Economics Department at UNIN that I would be
conducting research in the area. I was not formally introduced, but through a site visit for
a related project, I met the extension ofﬁcer and several farmers. At that time, I
explained the nature of my research and asked for the extension ofﬁcer’s help. I gave

him a consent form and set up times to meet with the farmers.

 

'The male rite-of-passage ceremony performed throughout the Northern Province and several
parts of South Africa on boys ranging in age from 8 through 19. The complexity of the ceremony differed
from one village to another, but typically involved the villages located in one Tribal Authority Council (T.
Mudzani, personal communication, 2001).

2This was the term that the chief‘s wife and many other locals used in referring to the agricultural
extension agent.

45

Before I began the data collection, 1 made two visits to each of the locations to
familiarize myself with the area, the people, and their cultural practices.3 These meetings
were instrumental in helping me develop a relationship with the extension ofﬁcers before
the farmer interviews and to make informal visits to several agriculturally based
organizations in the area. At the time of the ﬁnal site visits, the extension ofﬁcers and I
scheduled dates for the farmer interviews. We agreed that an hour would be allocated per
farmer because it was preparation time for summer crops and many of the farmers did not

have time to devote to lengthy interviews.

 

Originally, the plan had been to meet with each farmer for 1.5 hours, but both of

 

the extension ofﬁcers and some of the farmers had reservations about this idea. So to
maximize the time spent with farmers, it was agreed that I would also follow them in
their plots to see for myself the extent of the issues they faced. At each of the sites, many
of the interviews took longer than an hour because of the rich experiences the farmers
wanted to share. When I visited their plots, the farmers became more descriptive with

their explanations and shared more of their time.

On-SiteDa_ta Collection
Interviews were conducted in locations that were comfortable and accessible to
the farmers and extension ofﬁcers. In the Sekgosese area of Soekmekaar, interviews took
place at the extension ofﬁcer’s ofﬁce, as well as at the individual plots of the selected
farmers. In Straydkraal, the interviews were conducted at the ofﬁce of the extension
ofﬁcer in the Mooiplaas and Straydkraal A&B wards. In both locations, the farmers had

travel times of fewer than 30 minutes, which was less than a l-mile walk.

3In some areas the infrastructure was poor, and 1 had to determine where and how I would
interview the participants. In addition, I had to determine whether local protocol had to be followed before
I could meet with the farmers, i.e., eating with families and visiting plots.

46

Sekgosese Area (Dry-Land Farming Site)

This mountainous area was the site of interviews conducted with farmers who had
difﬁculties in obtaining water for their plots. Many farmers had greater access to water
during the summer months (September through December). Two sets of interviews were
conducted with three farmers who were selected by the extension ofﬁcer of the Mamaila

ward.

Straydkraal Area (Irrigated Farming Site)

The Straydkraal area was considered an irrigated farming area because of the

 

number of irrigation schemes that were in place. In this particular village, there were
three irrigation schemes housed under the ARDC, with subsequent funding and support
from UNIN and the Institute of Water Irrigation. All of the farmers who were
interviewed had experienced farming conditions under a communal irrigation scheme.
(See Appendix A for maps of the study areas.)

In each village, participants were read an informed consent form (Appendix B)
before the interviews began. In addition, the Sotho translator outlined the details of the
consent form so that everyone understood the nature of their role in the research. I
explained that conﬁdentiality would be maintained and that all participants had the right
to withdraw from participating at any time. At that time, many farmers expressed
concern about what would happen to the information aﬁer it was collected because
several agencies had conducted research there, but farmers never saw the results. I
explained that I would return to discuss their responses, and at that time they would be
able to provide me with feedback for corrections or deletions.

Before the interviews, the translator and I coordinated the sequence of questions

and wording that would be understood in the Northern Sotho language. This was done to

47

ensure that the questions being asked were linguistically appropriate and comprehensible
to all participants.

All interviews were audiotaped to ensure correct translation. Before the
interviews began, all participants were asked if they agreed to have their answers tape
recorded. Once they agreed, the interview process started with an ofﬁcial prayer or
opening in Sotho, a customary practice observed at all meetings and gatherings in the
village. The interview began with demographic questions about the farmers’ plots,
family, age, and so on. Then the translator began to ask speciﬁc questions listed on the
guided question list (see Appendix C). Content areas speciﬁed in the guided questions
were closely monitored; however, the interview format was loosely structured to
encourage spontaneity and reﬂection in responses. The translator prompted me when she
thought the questions needed to be reworded to ensure full understanding by the
participants.

At the conclusion of the interviews, participants were thanked for their time and
asked if they had any questions. One participant expressed reluctance to answer the
questions because

People are always coming in here to interview us. They just come in and get our

answers, then go back to their ofﬁces at those places [universities] and don’t tell

us anything. We don’t know what they are writing or saying because they never
come back to share with us. We are tired of that. Hopefully you will not be like
that. You will come back and share with us and tell us what you have found so
that we may improve our own communities. We can use the information to share
with the extension ofﬁcer and others who are supposed to be helping us.

Other concerns expressed by the participants were duly noted and kept with the interview

transcripts. They will be shared at a later time.

48

Data Management

Both sites and participants were coded to protect their identities. In addition, sites
were coded to reﬂect their farming characteristics, i.e., dry-land farming and irrigation
farming. Any supporting information from the two sites that had identiﬁable markers
was removed.

Interview tapes were kept in a locked, private ﬁle at UNIN until they were
transcribed. A professional stenographer/translator transcribed four Sotho tapes, and I
transcribed the remaining English ones. Once all interviews were transcribed, transcripts
were returned to the participants for review during the second site visit. This was

because a translator was needed for clariﬁcation and explanation at all times.

Respondent Codes

Following the respondent code key helped guide me during the classiﬁcation and
constant comparative procedures. The ﬁrst letter and number in the code indicated the
respondent (F1 = Farmer 1, F2 = Farmer 2, F3 = Farmer 3). The next four letters
indicated the village site (STRA = Straydkraal, SEKO = Sekgosese). The letters EW

stand for extension worker, and the initials NW stand for me, the interviewer.

Qatar-Analysis Framework
Case studies require that extensive amounts of data be collected in order to build a
rich story and to make general statements about relationships among categories of data.
Only through a well-organized process can a researcher manage the large volumes of
information. According to Creswell (1998), many forms of data analysis are used by
researchers in the same ﬁeld. Because of the lack of research on this particular topic and

the inaccessibility of work that has been done in South Africa, I relied on methods used

49

in other forms of extension research to retell the story of smallholder farmers in the
Northern Province.

Because much of the work in extension relies on the participatory approach, I
used a database system that includes several techniques that are used for recording,
interviewing, and observing in developing countries. These techniques are as follows:

1. Data were collected via tape recordings and transcribed onto notepads for the
participants’ viewing. Data were also transcribed into notebooks for the consultants and
me. Written documents were then separated by subject themes and color-coded in ﬁles
or folders. Finally, data were separated into coded themes.

Interviews were tape recorded and color coded according to site location.
Observations of rural farmers were kept in a journal, with sections separated by tabs
according to site location. Observations of extension staff were organized according to
formal/informal meetings, planning meetings, and site visits. Site maps of each location
(farmers and university) were kept, along with pictures and newspaper clippings relevant
to the study. After each session, notes were transcribed into NoteKeeper (a computer
software package for researchers).4

2. Data were organized into themes that had been formed by the research.
NoteKeeper notes, journals, and site maps were analyzed to generate themes. In this
study, themes included extension education, farmers’ perceptions, agricultural policies,
delivery of extension, and extension programming pre- and postapartheid. Pictures,
articles, and ﬁlm were grouped into separate categories to facilitate the process.

3. The participants and the researcher ﬁltered out unnecessary and irrelevant

information through secondary interviews and triangulation. Information was placed in a

 

4I worked with translators on all information in Sotho.

50

small-scale matrix, which was a ﬁrst step in answering the overall research questions and
helped me explain and understand the data. In determining what information was
irrelevant, I had to determine whether it was useful and central to the study.

4. A report was written for stakeholders and the general public. The dissertation
describes the methods by which extension education is delivered and its impact on the

quality of life of smallholder farmers in Pietersburg, South Aﬁica.

Data-Analysis Procedures

During the course of the ﬁeldwork, I constantly developed categories from the
data, using the constant-comparative process (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The constant-
comparative method allowed me to break down the information collected from the farmer
interviews into manageable topics. My rationale for using this method was that theory
regarding institutional change and its effect on smallholder farmers in South Africa is
lacking.

I subjected the coded interviews and transcripts to content and constant-
comparative analysis. Lincoln and Guba (1985) described content analysis as a
conventional method of analyzing data. The analysis process comprised four stages:

(a) comparing incidents applicable to each category, (b) integrating categories,

(c) delimiting the theory, and ((1) writing the theory. Guided by the content areas found
in the interview guide, I was able to create an intuitive category domain list. Data were
then reviewed and “unitized” into manageable bits of information. I ﬁrst recorded and
coded the units and then assigned them to categories based on my reasoning regarding a

best ﬁt.

51

Comparisons were made within each unit and across categories, using the
guidelines set forth by Lincoln and Guba (1985). This process allowed me to make
comparisons that began to delineate the properties of units falling into each category.

Several interesting and challenging aspects arose during the course of this
process, which led me to “memo writing”5 (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Memo writing
during the coding process allowed me to describe my thoughts on the various categories
that were taking shape. I was able to capture differing as well as consistent thoughts
about the entire process by writing these memos. In addition, I was able to adhere to
Lincoln and Guba’s format of creating usable and useful deﬁnitions of the properties of
the category. After this, assigning units to categories shifted from an intuitive “look-
alike/feel-alike” match to a “prepositional rule-guided judgment” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985,
p.342)

In the second phase of the constant-comparative method, the researcher begins to
integrate the categories and their properties (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The main emphasis
was to test the individual categories as well as the individual units. In this phase, the
focus shifted from comparison of units within categories to comparison of newly
identiﬁed basic properties of a particular category. Clear direction and clarity was
provided by this two-edged test (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), which ultimately led to the
category-integration process.

The design and make-up of this study determined how the data were processed
and analyzed. Several aspects of the design inﬂuenced the data analysis:

1. After the topic was formulated, data analysis began.

2. Data analysis happened at the inception of data collection.

 

’During the entire research process I kept a research journal that included notes and other valuable
pieces of information.

52

 

3. Data collection and analysis happened in a nonlinear fashion.

4. Multisite design encompassed both collection and processing of data.

5. Data collection and analysis was a continuous process.

As a result, theory developed on its own through the “distinct integrative advantage”
described by Lincoln and Guba (1985).

The next phase of the analysis process, delimiting the theory, involved developing
efﬁcient categories from the remaining ones. This was systematically done by ﬁne-
tuning and revising the categories. By this point in the research, there was more
clariﬁcation of the category properties; as a result, the new data ﬁt into the categories
with fewer restrictions and complications. Because I had clearer direction and clarity
with the data and realized that the data-collection process was continuous, the ﬁnal data
collection targeted areas of ambiguity and saturated categories, and moved toward
closure of the study.

Qualitative researchers differ in the way they report their ﬁndings (Lincoln &
Guba, 1985; Miles & Huberman, 1994). These differences could be due to the ambiguity
that exists in the various qualitative formats, or it could be attributed to the well-known
inductive nature of qualitative research. Given the nature of this case study, I made
informed choices, maximized opportunities for gathering data without jeopardizing
people’s values, and paced my research within the local situation so as not to seem
obtrusive. These combined aspects led to a results section guided by the following
principles: trustworthiness, the study’s original purpose, and epistemological
consistency.

In summary, the constant-comparative method as described by Lincoln and Guba

(1985) and the tenets of critical race theory guided me to present the data in a case study

53

format. The process involved describing the case in detail, providing categorical
aggregation of the data, establishing patterns and correspondences among the categories,

and ﬁnally developing naturalistic generalizations from the complete analysis of the data.

Exteraal Reviewers

Throughout the analysis process, three external reviewers were used to ensure
validity, in accordance with the constant-comparative method as described by Lincoln T
and Guba (1985). Robbie Steward, an educational psychologist in the Department of '
Educational Psychology at Michigan State University, was chosen because of her

expertise in interviewing, attention to detail, and experience in working with case studies.

 

In addition, Professor Mollel from UNIN assisted in the comparative process. He served
as an advisor because of his cultural connection with the community, as well as his work
in both of the villages that served as research sites. His assistance during the research
helped me understand the cultural nuances in the Northern Province. John Graham,
Assistant Dean of Research at Delaware State University, also provided assistance due to
his previous work with historically black colleges in sub-Saharan Africa and with

disadvantage communities.

Quality Criteria
Qualitative researchers must strive to determine whether they have gathered the
most revealing pieces of information for their study. This inquisitive process, similar in
structure to the positivist paradigm, is distinguished by the overarching question of “How
do I know that my study is believable, accurate, and right?” (Creswell, 1998). This
question pertains to the trustworthiness of the study and can be answered according to

four criteria: credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability (Guba &

54

Lincoln, 1984). These criteria are similar to those found in the positivist paradigm, but
they probe much deeper into the multivocal discourse that is prominent in many
qualitative studies and help researchers remain consistently epistemological. The criteria

are discussed in the following paragraphs.

Validity and Credibility

A qualitative criterion for judging the quality of the conclusions reached in a F-
study is known as validity. The most widely used criterion in checking validity is
credibility, which concerns the consistency between the participants’ responses and the ;

researcher’s reconstruction of those responses. Credibility depends on the apparent

 

accuracy of the data, as well as the steps taken to increase reliability (Husen &
Postlethwaite, 1985). In a qualitative study, the researcher describes the precautions
taken to ensure accuracy of the observations, whereas in quantitative research the data
and ﬁndings are presented to the reader at face value. Credibility in the qualitative genre
cannot stand alone but depends on the researcher’s organization and presentation of the
data. In this study, credibility was increased because of my work as an extension
ofﬁcers. Although this work was not in South Africa, it gave me a common ground to
refer to when talking to farmers. This experience improved my knowledge of the culture
of the farmers and extension workers and ultimately increased my ability to build trust
with the study participants (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Ensuring credibility added to the
richness and depth of this study and allowed me to remain conﬁdent as to the reliability
of the taped conversations with the farmers and extension workers.

Triangulation also was used to ensure credibility in this study. Triangulation
“makes use of multiple and different sources, methods, investigators, and theories to

provide corroborating evidence” (Ely et al., 1991; see also Erlandson et al., 1993; Glesne

55

& Peshkin, 1992; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Merriam, 1998; Miles & Huberrnan, 1994;
Patton, 1980, 1990). Information I gathered from the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture
at UNIN, department heads in the extension system, lecturers, and agriculture-based
nongovernmental organizations provided me with multiple perspectives on answering the
research questions.

Peer debrieﬁng was used to provide an external check on my research. As
Creswell (2000) noted, this individual “asks the hard questions about methods, meanings
and interpretations; and provides the researcher with the opportunity for catharsis by
sympathetically listening to the researcher’s feelings” (p. xx). A Sotho graduate student
at UNIN provided me with honest reality checks throughout the research process.

In addition to peer debrieﬁng, I used member checks to ensure credibility. Due to
the language barrier, participants were given verbal feedback on their responses from the
previous interview. They were then able to provide me with immediate veriﬁcation of
their responses during the second interview. Conﬁdentiality was maintained by coding
both participants and sites.

The highly detailed and informative interviews provided me with insight into the
world of the farmers as well as the extension system in a linear fashion. This temporal
process helped me produce reliable data based on proper selection and technical quality
of my recordings as well as the accuracy of the transcripts. Ensuring reliability guided

this process as it kept me grounded and aware of the observed phenomena.

Transferability

Unlike external validity, transferability means that the individual reading the

study takes responsibility for making generalizations and decisions about the study. This

56

person has been provided with a template of rich experiences, detail, and data that have
emerged from interviews and focus groups.

Because this study was designed to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of
farmers from critical smallholder areas in the Northern Province of South Africa, I
decided to sample purposively (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Study sites were targeted not
only during the preselection stage, but also during consultations with key persons in the
Northern Province agricultural community. Lincoln and Guba said this consecutive

fashion of sampling allows for adjustments and focusing throughout the entire process.

Dependability and Conﬁrmﬂility

The ﬁnal components of trustworthiness are dependability and conﬁrrnability,
both of which are supported by two important factors, member checks and the paper trail
of memo writing. Conﬁrmability was supported in this research because both the process
and the product of the study were externally audited (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Lincoln
and Guba deﬁned conﬁrrnability and dependeability as necessary and positive aspects

that occur during the research process within an evolving and ﬂuid inquiry.

Limitations
Two major limitations were identiﬁed at the outset of this study. One was that the
selection of sites might be skewed to areas that had received previous funding and
support from the South African govemmenet and UNIN, thereby tainting people’s
responses so that they did not reﬂedt the true situation. Another area of concern was the
fact that I was dealing with only two chosen locations in the Northern Province. Thus,

the study would reﬂect only the issues and concerns of farmers in those particular areas

57

and not throughout the entire province. In additioni to these two limitations, I also took
into consideration ethical concerns.

Ethical considerations are shared across all genres of research; however, in each
tradcition the researcher should observe certain particulars. The high exposure rate in
studies of this nature reveals individuals’ personal issues and puts people in vulnerable
and uncomfortable situations. In addition, disclosure of information and documents can
put people in situations that risk their positions or respesct within a community.

Within the context of the Northern Province, there has been a lack of research

done by black South Aﬁ'icans. This has creatd a situation in which people are cautious of

 

outsiders who now want to study the agricultural community. Being aware of this
situation helped prepare me for framers’ possible resistance to participation. I kept in
mind that many of the people with whom I would be interacting had been forced into a
social situation that had left them vulnerable to others’ ideologies and beliefs. Thus, to
remain ethically sound, I took the following steps:

1. I gained entry into the community from a respected community member, the
Dean of Extension Education at UNIN.

2. I paced my research according to the local situation so as not to seem
obtrusive.

3. I protected participants’ anonymity and gained their consent to participate in
the study.

4. I maximized opportunities for gathering data without jeopardizing people’s

values.

58

5. I observed local customs when visiting rural farms. For example, I interacted
with both male and female farmers, which required different dress codes and social
actions.

6. I respected the norms of reciprocity.

I did not assume that my being aware of the above-mentioned issues would ensure
the success of the research. However, it possibly alleviated some of the limitations and

difﬁculties I might otherwise have encountered.

59

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS

Introduction
My purpose in this qualitative study was to identify the perceived needs of
smallholder farmers in the Northern Province of South Africa in relation to the delivery
of information and programs by agricultural extension services. This chapter contains

ﬁndings that were synthesized from the information collected during interviews, focus

 

groups, and observations. The results are presented in ﬁve major sections. The ﬁrst

 

section is a composite description of the respondents in the two selected research areas,
Sekgosese and Straydkraal. Then the general ﬁndings related to the research questions
are presented. The next two sections are case studies of the two areas and include
descriptive information concerning the respondents’ perceptions of the needs of farmers
in the areas. The ﬁnal section is a comparison of responses from the two villages.

The two case studies contain the respondents’ own statements, which are used to
illustrate their perceptions of reality. In line with critical race theory, this method was

considered the best way to convey the message within the context of power and race in

South Africa.

Demogrgaphic Information

The initial plan was to select as subjects for this study farmers who ﬁt into one of
the following two categories: (a) farmers who lived in an irrigated area, deﬁned as an
area that had an irrigation scheme to meet the agricultural needs of plots and farms; and
(b) farmers who lived in a nonirrigated village, deﬁned as an area that depended on local

water sources for irrigation purposes. It was important to have this mix of farmers to

60

ensure an equal representation of the predominant farming types in this area of the
country.

The mix of respondents was according to plan because of the interactions 1 had
with the local extension agents and other key stakeholders in these areas before the
research began. The number of respondents from each area was equally distributed
between the two villages. I believe the positive interactions these farmers had had with
other researchers, their linkage with UNIN, and the initial acceptance by the extension
ofﬁcers inﬂuenced their decision to participate.

All of the respondents in this study shared the belief that they were part of a

 

system of people who had mutual experiences. One respondent told me at my initial
visit, “It is good to have someone like you here. . . . You can tell them up there in
Pietersburg what we are going through—~what we must live through every day. We are
suffering, but we are making it.” Other researchers had visited these villages, but not
necessarily to talk with the farmers. Many had come only to examine programs or
projects and not speciﬁcally the farmers. The farmers thought their role in the ﬁeld of
sustainable agriculture was not valued because they were not educated or in positions of
power. One farmer said, “We need to tell our story so they know what we are doing. As
long as you share the results with us, we will tell you what you want to know.”

A proﬁle of the respondents shows that, of the 6 smallholder farmers who
participated in the study, 5 were males and l was female. Five were married, and l was
widowed; all of them had children. The farmers were all over the age of 30 and had a
mean household size of about 9.4 people. The mean number of children in their
households was about 5.7. Farmers in both villages had an average plot size of 2.1

hectares and produced a variety of crops in both the winter and summer. Summer crops

61

comprised maize, cotton, and wheat, whereas winter crops included tomatoes, mangoes,
bananas, spinach, and butternut squash. In addition to these crops, some farmers had
begun to plant and grow saplings for sale in the local community. Families used the
money they earned from this enterprise to help with extra expenses such as school fees
and the staple food called pap.

Respondents from both villages reported that they had been farming in their
respective areas for an average of 7.83 years. They deﬁned farming as an activity that
produced an agricultural yield for either their family or the community. All farmers
practiced mixed cropping and reported they did this to supplement their incomes. In
Sekgosese, 2 farmers grew vegetables and ﬁ'uit only, and 1 also raised livestock and
poultry. In Straydkraal, l farmer each grew maize and cotton, maize and wheat, and
livestock and poultry. A comparison of the demographic characteristics of farmers from

both villages is shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1: Demographic characteristics of respondents in Sekgosese and Straydkraal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . Village
Characteristic Sekgosese Straydkraal

Gender

Male 3

Female 0 1
Marital Status

Married 3 2

Widowed 0 1
Mean number of children 5.17 6.23
Mean number in household 8.20 10.67
Mean number of years farming 7.15 8.51
Type of farming practice

Vegetables/fruit only 2 . 0

Livestock/poultry l 1

Maize and cotton 0 1

Maize and wheat 0 1

 

62

 

Findings Related to the Research Questions

Farmers had an opportunity to express their views on the local extension system,
which they did by sharing experiences and stories during my site visits. The following
are perceptions of the extension service as expressed by farmers from two villages in the
Northern Province, Sekgosese and Straydkraal. Each account is unique, yet the stories
overlap with respect to certain details and experiences of the rural smallholder farmers.

Research Question 1: To what extent does the delivery of technical information

and methods by the Northern Province extension system affect the productivity,

economic inputs, and quality of life of smallholder farmers in the Northern

Province of South Aﬁica?

Rural farmers in both villages had similar experiences; thus, their responses were
similar. Farmers in each area expressed concerns related to the type of information
delivered by the extension agents, as well as how that information affected their overall
productivity and quality of life. It was obvious that many of these farmers’ issues were
not isolated to their speciﬁc villages, but crossed geographical boundaries.

The greatest concerns that farmers expressed were related to lack of
communication, transportation, and supervision of the extension worker, as well as
barriers that limited economic and social mobility and grth and lack of access to
markets. They understood that these factors limited the quality of service they received
from the extension workers and saw them as barriers that rural extension workers had to
face in their positions. Two extension agents from the train-the-trainer sessions reﬂected
on one of these issues and how it related to their work with rural farmers.

EWI: I don’t have access to a computer but would like one in the ofﬁce, as well

as a telephone [land line]. I must use a cellular phone for all professional business

calls. Also, I don’t have transportation. I must use public transportation, which is
costly. During the apartheid era, some extension ofﬁcers were given government
cars [GG2], but I was not fortunate to receive one. None of the ﬁve other

extension ofﬁcers in the Sekgosese area have cars, even if they have two or more
wards, such as myself.

63

EW2: Transportation is a problem. The reason that extension is failing is
because [there is] no communication and transportation. You must go to the
supervisor if you want transportation or use your own phone if you need to make
important calls. Petrol costs R400 to 500 a month. I have my own car, but that
doesn’t necessarily improve the standards of my job, not effectively. If we had a
government car and had an allowance for petrol and maintenance, it would be
better.

Rural farmers also mentioned lack of transportation, as evidenced by the
following:

FlSEKO: It is a problem for communities and farmers because of lack of

transportation. We don’t have the money to pay for a car or petrol. My salary

goes towards transportation, which I must depend on daily.

In addition to these views, the farmers felt a strong need for extension ofﬁcers to
be held responsible and accountable to a higher authority. More often than not, they
expressed that the extension ofﬁcer was not doing an effective job because he was not
reporting to an immediate supervisor. Although this seemed to be a consistent problem
in both areas, the farmers in the irrigated area were more adamant about this being a
continuous problem:

F lSTRA: They don’t have anyone to report to—no supervisors, no

accountability. They report to Sheelot, which is located far away. Supervisors

should take the time to come here to visit the extension ofﬁcer [in the ﬁeld]. The
extension ofﬁcer is reluctant to do work, and it aggravates us [the farmers].

Farmers in the dry-land area (Sekgosese) voiced this same sentiment, but not with
as much conviction because the extension ofﬁcer made a conscientious effort to visit the
farmers and share with them information from the Department of Agriculture and other
agricultural agencies. This served as adequate justiﬁcation for his not having direct daily
contact with a supervisor. In addition, the Head of Region’s ofﬁce was located within
5 miles of the village, which created a sense of security for the agricultural community.

Farmers were aware of the services the ofﬁce provided and its role in the productivity of

the extension ofﬁcer.

64

Research mestion 2: What are the barriers of the present extension system for
smallholder farmers?

Farmers mentioned several barriers that they faced, which led to a diminished
quality of life. On the subject of crops and postproduction, they stated there was a lack of
technical information on crops other than their staple harvest, limited information on
cooperatives, and inadequate information on how to improve postharvest facilities.
Concerning the delivery of information, farmers said there was a lack of training and
support of extension staff. Other barriers they mentioned were the inadequate
transportation services available to extension staff to deliver information, inadequate
roads, limited access to markets in the surrounding areas and within the cities, and limited
access to cooperatives to purchase inputs.

Research Question 3: How do past and present government policies affect the

educational delivery methods of the extension system for smallholder farmers in

the Northern Province?

Farmers said that, although there had been discrepancies and inequalities in the
extension system of the past, they thought the white extension staff were more attentive
and personable than the current black staff when delivering information. These extension
staff were given access to resources and inputs and inﬂuenced the type of information
they delivered to the rural farmers. Policies that limited the educational opportunities for
blacks also affected the type of information that extension ofﬁcers were able to deliver to
the rural farming communities. The farmers noted that, although this was the case, they
thought the black extension ofﬁcers lacked the enthusiasm that many of the white
extension officers had shown them. The policies implemented during the time of the dual
extension system created lax attitudes among many rural extension ofﬁcers, limited

access to information and educational opportunities, and overall inadequate services for

rural smallholder farmers.

65

Research Question 4: What is the effect of support services on the productivity
and yields of farmers in the Northern Province?

Farmers suggested in the interviews that the information they received from the
extension ofﬁcers was redundant and dated. Much of the information they needed for the
maintenance of their crops had been passed down from season to season, so in essence
the extension ofﬁcers were not delivering new information. Additional support services
were not available unless the farmers themselves coordinated them. Farmers wanted
current information on how to expand their plots and crops, construct postharvest
facilities, and create cooperatives.

Farmers in the irrigated area were in a unique situation in that they needed support
services that met the needs of their irrigation plots. Before funds from the parastatal
organization ARDC were curtailed, farmers had received sufﬁcient support. Now,
however, they needed assistance in repairing pipes and transformers, which were crucial
to the current farming season. Throughout the interviews, the farmers mentioned that the
extension officer was not helpful and had not taken the time to ﬁnd out the proper agency
to provide them with on-going support.

Research Question 5: How appropriate is the information provided by extension
ofﬁcers to smallholder farmers?

Farmers expressed a general need for the information they received from the
extension ofﬁcers, but some noted that the information was outdated and redundant.
Many noted that the ofﬁcers demonstrated proper techniques, yet these may not have
been the most appropriate methods to use. They also told me that, because the extension
ofﬁcers did not receive frequent training, they lacked much of the current and advanced

information taught to the white extension ofﬁcers. Much of the information given to

66

farmers was the same as they had been using for several years, and it had not helped

increase the smallholder farmers’ productivity and yields.

Case Study 1: Straydkraal Irrigation Scheme (Irrigated Area)
Demographics
The Straydkraal Irrigation Scheme is located between the two major cities of
Pietersburg and Louis Trichardt. It was initially funded as an irrigation scheme because F

of the extremely dry and inclement weather found in this area. Agricultural plots

 

managed by individuals receive water through a community pump connected to an ‘
irrigation scheme. Its location makes it convenient for water to be drawn from the E
Arabie-Olilfants River, located fewer than 3 miles from the main community.
The irrigation scheme is in the former homeland of Bophuthatswana, which can
best be described as isolated and remote. It is accessed by unpaved, gravel goads, which
makes transportation awkward and unreliable. Pietersburg is the nearest large
commercial center, but communications with that city are relatively poor. Local markets
are randomly located around the area; they serve as major points of commerce for many
families, due to the lack of transportation. Farmers must travel to town to purchase goods
related to their agricultural needs.
The area is divided into three subsections, commonly referred to as Straydkraal A,
Straydkraal B, and Mooiplaas. Overall, 256 farmers carry out sprinkler irrigation
schemes on 338 hectares. Approximately 1,000 families rely on the scheme to some
extent. Land can be classiﬁed as semi-arid with limited vegetation. Crops grown in this
area include maize in the summer and vegetables and wheat in the winter. The farmers
are elderly and are eager to interest their children and grandchildren in the land but

cannot compete with the attractive salaries and lifestyles possible in the urban centers.

67

ConstraLints on Productivity V

Several constraints limit agricultural productivity and growth in the Straydkraal
area. Some are related to a lack of resources, yet others can be attributed to the economic
and political structure of the former homeland. All of these constraints have led to the
low yields, productivity, and agricultural growth in this area. The following is a list of
constraints identiﬁed by farmers during an agricultural assessment project done by GTZ
South Aﬁica, a German nongovernmental organization that is responsible for developing

former homeland areas throughout South Africa: wom-out tractors, lack of government

 

commitment, low prices and market problems, lack of water, pump breakdowns, lack of

credit, few marketing opportunities, poor demand, and high transaction costs.

 

In addition to the above-mentioned limitations, farmers identiﬁed several key
opportunities in their community, which makes it unique in relation to other irrigation
schemes:

1. With the aid of extension staff, farmers have negotiated a deal with NTK,l
which will provide 10 tractors over the plowing period.

2. Increased production by the scheme as a whole should follow from better
timing and increased plowed area if the committees can address the issue of a support
system for farmers who have difﬁculty raising the cash for tractor services.

3. The local chief is keen to see farmer-run maize milling for local sale to keep
the milling proﬁts in the community and encourage local artisans.

4. Decision making seems to rely heavily on extension advice and could beneﬁt
from capacity building on committees and in the community as a whole. Proposals for

addressing entrepreneurial capacity building locally are under consideration.

 

IA former cooperative, located in Pietersburg, that gave ﬁnancial and technical assistance to
farmers in rural areas.

68

These farmers have considerable tenacity and are making the best of the irrigation
scheme under the present extension system. They understand the complexities of
farming under these types of conditions and are willing to sacriﬁce to make the best of
the current situation. Weak local demand, variable prices, transportation logistics, and
transportation costs all contribute to the difﬁcult situation for many farmers. Poor
demand and high transaction costs tend to reduce returns from farming and subsequently
the resources available for farming. This trend exacerbates the downward production
spiral that has been occurring over the past 5 years. The long history of changing
institutional arrangements also contributes to farmers’ lacking conﬁdence in development
agencies and failing to adopt cooperative attitudes. It is in this context that the farmers
shared their perspectives about the current extension system in the Northern Province.

Straydkraal had received major funding from NTK, an organization set up during
the apartheid regime that gave people a false sense of hope after the 1994 elections. The
NTK was responsible for the downfall of many farmers because they relied on the
handouts this organization provided. Once the services were discontinued, farmers found
themselves defenseless, without the technical training or knowledge to use the products

they had been accustomed to using.

Findings

As a result of past inequities and circumstances, farmers had experienced a low
quality of life. Through my interviews with them, I was able to discover some of the
issues they were currently facing. From more than 2 months of interviews with farmers
and the extension worker, I identiﬁed the following issues of concern: quality of services

postapartheid, lack of communication and transportation, lack of supervision and training

69

for the extension ofﬁcer, and barriers to agricultural productivity. These issues are
discussed in the following pages.

Quality of servicesgpostapartheid. Farmers expressed the need for a better system
of extension services because what was currently being done would not sustain their
livelihood. Their reference point was the type of service they had received during the
apartheid era. Although apartheid was a repressive system for these particular farmers,
they were able to differentiate between what had worked then and what was not working
at the present time.

NW: During the apartheid era, did you receive more or less information from the
extension ofﬁcer?

FlSTRA: Service was better then; when we asked for help, the government
helped with funding, inputs, services—more than what they are doing now. Now,
during the democratic time, no one is helping us to access funds, [and] the water
pump is broken [and we need to make repairs]. During apartheid we only had one
white extension technician who was running one section, but now it is divided and
the service is poorer. During that time the extension ofﬁcer changed every 2
years. Whites were much friendlier than the blacks. In most cases, blacks are
jealous and angry. For example, if they come with the perception of helping
others to help their livelihood they will not, because they will be succeeding in
doing just that. So they just come to the ofﬁce and collect a paycheck. We would
be better if the government sent in a foreigner because they would have more
respect for the people.

FZSTRA: Services were better because white farmers compelled extension
ofﬁcers to be in the ﬁeld. Now they [extension ofﬁcers] don’t have anyone to
report to; they stay in their ofﬁces and [work]. In 1999, farmers came here and
did a trial study to plant groundnuts. The extension ofﬁcer participated because it
was part of the university or government, but not because he was interested in the
study and not because of his job. He feared he would be reported or exposed [if
he didn’t participate], but actually they [extension agents] don’t go to the ﬁelds.

. . . During the apartheid era, when there were white farmers in the area, the
extension services were better.

FBSTRA: Service was better then because whites were determined and
hardworking [both farmers and extension ofﬁcers]. Now, because of blacks
[extension ofﬁcer], they don’t have the self-control like the whites. For example,
an extension ofﬁcer will come and tell the farmer to weed and plough for a better
harvest. The farmers are saying it is in their right not to go to the ﬁeld to see
about their plot, unlike before. Farmers now don’t care about their harvest.

7O

White farmers would rob [black] farmers of money back in those days. Let me

give you an example. We would harvest with the agreement to take out goods to

NTK to sell. You should receive R100/bag for 90 bags, but the whites would

deduct money without telling the black farmers. They were deducting for

fertilizer, seeds, input costs, and unnecessary services; they cheated us, but the
service was good.

This mention of good service should be considered in the context of factors
associated with the apartheid system. Delgado (1998) referred to this as the materialist
concept within the critical race theory. The farmers perceived that the treatment, E-
information, and quality of service in the apartheid era were much better than what they *3

were experiencing with the present extension service. The equitable service that small-

scale farmers wish to receive will ultimately come from the extension ofﬁcer and his

 

relationship with the farmers. The interactions that extension ofﬁcers have with farmers
will depend on their personal relationships and the rapport they build. As one extension
ofﬁcer noted, the services of extension seemed better during apartheid:

Extension ofﬁcers were allocatd a vehicle during apartheid and could take the

farmer to other farms, organizing tours to observe, and could visit other

colleagues after communicating [clearing] with the head [supervisor]. Resources
were adequately distributed. Now we need access to vehicles and phones—we
could do everything from A to Z if this were possible; we could get instant
veriﬁcation, adequately and quickly.

Farmers’ impression of the extension ofﬁcer could inﬂuence their overall
perception of the extension system. Further supporting the idea that services were of
better quality during the apartheid era, one farmer commented, “Extension workers did
their jobs back then; the whites were willing to work and help us out. Now, the blacks
[extension workers] are jealous and don’t do what they are supposed to do. They just
don’t care.”

Lack of communication and Lansportartion. Another category of concern that

emerged in the interviews was the lack of communication and transportation that

71

 

extension agents faced in doing their job. Although the farmers did not drive, they
realized that extension ofﬁcers needed cars in order to perform their jobs effectively. The
extension ofﬁcer in Straydkraal commented,

During the apartheid era we had access to cars. This doesn’t imply that the

current government doesn’t have resources. They do, but they don’t work directly

with farmers. Presently they have cars, cars that are concentrated at the senior
level. Also, supervisors should visit and link directly with extension technicians.

He [supervisor] can work at the grassroots level like the extension ofﬁcer.

Such comments were a constant refrain of many extension staff and farmers in the
surrounding area. Extension workers noted that, in order for them to do their jobs
effectively, they needed transportation and access to communication. It was not enough
to have cellular phones and expect to be connected to a community of more than 500
farmers and their families.

Transportation is a problem. The reason that extension is failing [is that there is

no] communication and transportation. You must go to the supervisor if you want

transportation or use your own phone if you need to make important calls. Petrol
costs R400 to 500 a month. I have my own car, but that doesn’t necessarily
improve the standards of my job; [it’s] not effective. If a government car would
have allowance for petrol and maintenance, it would be better.

Likewise, farmers realized that, to stay connected with the extension worker, they
needed a phone provided by the extension service. Although this would not solve most
of the farmers’ communication problems, it would alleviate the persistent unavailability
and inaccessibility of the extension worker, as one farmer noted:

FlSTRA: Farming is a big enterprise that needs someone who is wise and

enthusiastic, dedicated to the job. Sometimes the extension ofﬁcer is not here.

He doesn’t show up if they [farmers] are here and doesn’t report to farmers that

he won’t be in. He doesn’t take the job seriously. He must collaborate with

farmers at all times. Sometimes when I come to visit the extension ofﬁcer, I

come to ﬁnd the gate locked.

An extension agent reported on what farmers had told him during one of his

weekly meetings: “How are you supposed to meet with us, especially during the rainy

72

 

r1.

season or when we have broken pipes and machinery? You need transportation to take
things to town in order to get them repaired.” His response to this farmer and the entire
situation was:
We don’t even have cars to do our jobs effectively. How are we supposed to meet
our farmers and work with them? We cannot walk; it is too far. If farmers want
our help, then we should be there to give it to them. We need money for petrol
and cars.
This dialogue was supported by a subregional head, who stated, “There isn’t any Fr

money to run transportation for extension ofﬁcers. When the extension ofﬁcer is far

from the ofﬁce, I help them to arrange transportation. The extension ofﬁcer uses a taxi or

 

public transportation. There are GG2 cars but no money to run them.” He further L
pointed out what happened to the cars after the elections:

From 1996 to 1998 we had a contract for the cars. In 1998 the contract ended, for

an allotment of 90,000 km/month. Now we are only allotted a usage of 500 km/

month. We are limited by transportation because of maintenance and limited
kilometers. We are limited in the scope of work because of lack of transportation.

The chain of command for communication limits work here for the farmers.

This section provided a glimpse of the current situation and its initial effect on the
rural farming community. Extension workers, from the top to the grassroots level,
understand the need for communication and transportation, but this issue is not one that
can easily be rectiﬁed. Subsidies that were common during the apartheid era are not an
option today; as a result, the number of government cars available to extension workers is
limited. They must rely on public transportation to move from one point to the next. In a
region such as this, where the roads are untarred and the public transportation system is
unreliable, it is difﬁcult for an extension worker to reach his farmers. If he does come,
many times he is late and has no legitimate excuse.

Lack of supervision and training for the extension ofﬁcer. Another concern that

was voiced in the interviews was the lack of supervision and training of the extension

73

ofﬁcer. Farmers realized this was a problem, and it hindered the enthusiasm and care

they received from the extension ofﬁcer.

Farmers spoke indirectly of the lack of training the extension ofﬁcers received.

Their concern stemmed from the lack of supervision and commitment an extension

ofﬁcer received during the course of his tenure. His lack of enthusiasm, inability to show

up on time, and lack of information left a negative impression of the extension worker

and his job performance on farmers in this area. The farmers regarded this situation as a

factor in the low productivity and yields they were experiencing. One farmer discussed

the importance of training and supervision for the extension ofﬁcer in his dialogue with

me:

NW: How many times has the extension ofﬁcer visited you this year?
FlSTRA: He rarely visits me in my plots [was very reserved with his answer].
NW: What type of information does he discuss when he comes to visit?

Fl STRA: When problems arise, someone (usually a farmer) must go to the
extension ofﬁcer. Then he comes to the ﬁeld to identify the problem (like stalk
borer or weeds).

PM: Does he help by demonstration or by orally describing the information?

FlSTRA: He [extension ofﬁcer] gives us information orally and then shows us
how to do the tasks by hands-on demonstrations. He is very helpful and believes
it is very important to have the extension ofﬁcer so that he can guide farmers with
his information and extension practices.

NW: How would you feel if a new extension ofﬁcer were brought to this area?

F1 STRA: I would be happy if they replace him [laughs], especially if he will do
a better job than this one. If they bring in a skilled person to help them it would
be useful, but not a lazy person like the one we have now. Sometimes he takes
off, leaves when he is needed the most. Farmers are unsure of certain things
when it comes to planting. He disappoints them in these areas. Sometimes he is
helpﬁal. I can say that he is somewhat responsible. Sometimes the extension
ofﬁcer is not here; he doesn’t show up if we are here and doesn’t report to farmers
that he won’t be in. He doesn’t take the job seriously.

74

 

 

Another farmer corroborated these comments in the following conversation:
NW: How many times has the extension ofﬁcer visited you this year?
F3STRA: One to two times per week. In most cases, he comes once a week and
will give reasons why he didn’t come. Sometimes he complains about illnesses
[woman in the background sucks her teeth in disgust].
NW: How long does the extension ofﬁcer visit your plot?
FSSTRA: [Responds adamantly] He doesn’t spend enough time. He comes
whenever he wants [and spends] approximately 2 hours when he comes. Because
he works with many farmers, he must make many visits per day. He may make
visits one day with many farmers and spend the rest of the day in the ﬁeld.

M: Do you feel the extension ofﬁcer is doing a good job?

F3STRA: No, he is not very helpful. During the apartheid era when there were
white farmers in the area, the extension services were better.

NW: What is the biggest problem with extension?

F3STRA: They don’t have anyone to report to—no supervisors, no

accountability. They report to Sheelot, which is located far away. Supervisors

should take the time to come here to visit the extension ofﬁcers [in the ﬁeld]. The
extension ofﬁcers are reluctant to do work, and it aggravates the farmers.

Farmers and extension ofﬁcers should both be trained on all farming practices.

F arrner 2 expressed the same sentiments but went further in pointing out that the
extension ofﬁcer lacked training and direct supervision, in contrast to the situation under
the previous government.

NW: How many times has the extension ofﬁcer visited you this year?

FZSTRA: He only visits during the planting season.

NW: How long does the extension ofﬁcer visit your plot?

FZSTRA: He comes for approximately 10 minutes because he has to visit many

farmers. He gives quick advice and moves on. Sometimes he spends 3 hours in

the plot, depending on the advice he is giving.

_NV_V: Do you feel the extension ofﬁcer is doing a good job?

75

 

 

 

FZSTRA: Yes. There are some things he excels in and does a good job at, but
then there are areas where they [extension ofﬁcers] lack. They lack because of
laziness and not due to lack of training.

NW: What is the biggest problem with extension?

FZSTRA: Now, extension ofﬁcers are reluctant to do their jobs because there is

no one to report to, no supervisor to track progress [he looks around the room].

Supervisors don’t care if they do their job or not—no rules or punishment [are] in

place, like [with] the previous government. Blacks don’t have self-control, no

success like the whites. Extension ofﬁcers should do their job; supervisors must
get them motivated. If farmers were to provide information to extension ofﬁcers,
they don’t listen. It would be better if it comes from the supervisor; they will take
it better. [At this point he was very expressive with his hand gestures]

Farmers expressed in informal conversations that they thought the extension
ofﬁcer did not care because sometimes he would come and give them the same technical
information they already knew. One farmer thought the extension worker “should work
with [them] after he and an assistant received some training; [now] they were only there
to collect a paycheck at the end of the day.” The lack of training and supervision of the
extension ofﬁcer indirectly affected the amount of information he was able to relay to the
farmers. In essence, this constituted a barrier to agricultural productivity.

Barriers to @cultural productivity. Socioeconomic barriers faced by farmers in
this area affected the overall productivity of communities as well as individual farm plots.
Extension services had had an insigniﬁcant inﬂuence on productivity, as the farmers
noted. They expressed concern about the type of information extension delivered and
what this would ultimately mean to their quality of life.

NW: How do you purchase inputs for your plot?

FlSTRA: We get free seeds from NTK because of the agreement to buy our

harvest at the end of the season. We purchase maize and wheat from the NTK
cooperative for the following: 25 kg/R55 (maize), 25 kg/Rl 10 (wheat). The
proﬁt made from wheat was R19,000/50 tons between the years 1977-98, but after
the ﬂoods we didn’t plant wheat because of the damage done to the land. [At the
time of the study, this area still had not recovered from the ﬂood damage] We

76

haven’t planted at all this year because of the pump problems. [The pump needs
to be ﬁxed so that we can irrigate the land.]

NW: How many people are in your family?

FlSTRA: [He counts on his ﬁngers]: Six in total, four children and my wife. I
am the only one working and must provide for everything—school uniforms
(R1,000/year), school fees (R1,000/year). I have one child in high school, one in
secondary school, and two haven’t started.

1m: Is farming enough to sustain your family?

FlSTRA: [He puts his hand on his head]: No, I am just focusing on farming to
plant the whole area. I need more inputs, access to markets and credit facilities.
. . . I am not willing to look elsewhere for work—just want to farm. . . . I need to
improve production to assist my family. [Farming is expensive because]
transportation costs R25 to Pietersburg [which is a tar road] and R22 to
Marblehall [which is a gravel road].

Another farmer mentioned additional barriers, such as ﬁxed prices and locked-in
markets:
FZSTRA: A problem farmers encountered was that, when planting, NTK might
come in to buy the harvest with the knowledge that proﬁt was from NTK. This
was a problem because the price varied. NTK people would send money back to
us after they picked up the harvest from our ﬁelds, and we may not receive the
full value of the weight. The price was determined by the weight/kg bag. If you
questioned the amount you received, they would automatically reduce the amount,
saying that they had to deduct for transportation, inputs, and so on.

m: Is farming enough to sustain your family?

FZSTRA: If farming is productive, then I can sustain [my family]. But because
farming is not productive now, I can’t.

The marketability of products was another barrier faced by many farmers such as
the one quoted below. He talked about his proﬁt margin after selling wheat and maize
and how the inputs were more costly than his overall return.

N_W_: What crops do you grow?

F3STRA: I plant maize and wheat. [There is] no proﬁt on wheat locally because
it isn’t marketable.

NW: How much do the seeds for maize and wheat cost?

77

F3STRA: I buy maize at 50 rand for 70 kg [sold at local shops] and 75 rand for
75 kg at NTK. Cost of seeds is 150 rand for 50 kg; this is for wheat [from NTK].
I pay 67 rand for 25 kg of wheat [locally].

m: Is that the only size that is sold?

 

F3STRA: 75 kg bags aren’t sold typically.

N_W_: What do you do with your crops after harvest?

F3STRA: I sell 70 bags after harvest and keep 30 bags for home consumption.
ﬂ: Is farming enough to sustain your family?

F 3STRA: No, not at all. I am struggling a lot.

NW: Would you pay for extension services?

 

F3STRA: No, because arable land provides a small income from the productivity

of 1.2 hectares. [Pauses] That wouldn’t be enough, but if I had a large area, 5

hectares, I would produce.

Farmers’ costs for agricultural inputs, maintenance, and transportation far
outweighed their proﬁt margin. They all asserted that farming did not cover their cost of
sustaining a family and thought that extension should be able to provide more assistance
in order to improve the quality of life for farmers in this area. Without the delivery of
information from extension agents, farmers would not know the proper techniques and
correct applications for their crops.

F1 STRA: Extension ofﬁcers are helpful; they give information on soil types and

fertilizer, what type to use and application [how to use]. They take soil samples

to the lab for analysis to check to see if they are capable of producing crops
during the planting season. He reminds us of certain crops and types of crops to
plant in particular seasons].

N_W_: What type of information does he discuss when he comes to visit?

FZSTRA: For maize and wheat crops, he will identify deﬁciencies and diseases

and give the names of pesticides to use and will also tell the names of pesticides

and amounts to use.

PM: Does he help by demonstration or by orally describing the information?

78

F ZSTRA: He will show us how to apply the pesticide.

NW: What type of information does he discuss when he comes to visit?

FZSTRA: He helps with planting dates, method of plowing, method of

controlling weeds and spacing of crops, and how to use pesticides. . . . He is very

helpful, especially in farming practices and crops, and ultimately improves the
home because kids have something to eat at the end of the day.

Farmers also expressed a need for the extension service to have access to
maintenance monies for the repair of irrigation equipment. They commented on how
broken equipment was limiting their ability to farm during the current season and how it
had caused various problems throughout the year. One farmer stated,

We don’t have a transformer. [Pointing toward the broken equipment]: This is

what we must deal with all the time. They make promises to come and ﬁx it, but

they never come. You see [points again in the direction of the transformer], we
can’t even run the pump if this is broken. The extension ofﬁcer said he would
call someone to repair it for us, but he is a slacker. Ah, that one, he never does
what he is supposed to do when it comes to these things. How can we farm
without this?

Another farmer commented on how the transformer had been broken for 6 months
due to theft and vandalism from neighboring farmers. If the transformer remained
unrepaired, the farmers would have just one other transformer to use during the planting
season, and this was not enough to draw water from the furrow to the plots.

These types of extension services must be improved and delivered in a more
effective manner in order to enhance the overall quality of life for farmers and their
families. Extension’s role in farmers’ quality of life is an integral part of the dialogue
that must take place between the Department of Agriculture and rural farmers.

The themes that surfaced in my conversations with the farmers revealed the

problems relative to their communities and villages. The farmers expressed these

concerns from years of experience as farmers in these particular villages. Because these

79

 

 

 

smallholder farmers had worked in a marginalized rural community, they were able to

indicate accurately the problems faced by the majority of farmers in this area.

Case Study 2: Sekgosese (Dry-Land Area)
Before I began the interviews, the village had gone through koma,2 which
prevented access to farmers. When I returned, I had a difﬁcult time speaking to farmers
because they were preparing for the winter harvest. The conversations were informative,

yet they lacked the depth of the conversations I had with farmers in Straydkraal.

Demographics

Sekgosese is an isolated community in the Soekmekaar Tribal Leadership Council
district. (See Appendix A for a map of the area.) Access to this mountainous village is
limited due to untarred and gravel roads. Taxis move only when they are completely
ﬁlled with passengers, making it difﬁcult to travel on a regular schedule. The majority of
farming in this area is mixed crop. The main products are spinach, butternut squash, and
livestock.

The district is divided into four wards under the jurisdiction of a tribal chief.
Mamaila is the name of the local chief, so the village adOpted the unofﬁcial name of
Mamaila, but to the general public it is known as Sekgosese. Sekgosese was the most
populous ward, which was broken into ﬁve sections, Hartebees, Midlewater,
Hartebroesfontein, Lemondokop, and Vaalwater, My research took place in the
Hartebees section of Sekgosese.

According to 1999 statistics, 3 total of 3,439 farm families were identiﬁed in four

of the ﬁve sections (Hartebroesfontein had no farmers). Of that number, 1,799 raised

 

2A rite-of-passage ceremony for boys ages 9 through 18 that is conducted in rural areas of the
Northern Province.

80

 

livestock only, 857 raised land crops only, and 783 raised land crops and livestock. The
majority of families in Hartebees, the village in which I conducted the research, raised
livestock in addition to land crops. Due to the remote location, water for farming was
drawn from the river by hand mechanization or pumps that had been built by farmers. In
one case, the farmer built his own dam to contain water needed for his plots.

Youths constituted a large pr0portion of the population of Sekgosese. The elderly

population was dying off, increasing the size of the nonfarrner population. Most of the

 

people who were not engaged in smallholder farming were employed as domestic

workers or teachers, or worked on nearby commercial farms. Those not included in these

 

activities drifted about the community performing odd jobs or engaging in menial labor.
All four of the sections in Sekgosese (excluding Hartebroesfontein) fell under the
jurisdiction of the extension ofﬁcer, which meant he was responsible for delivering
information to farmers involved in livestock and crop production. Distances between the
sections were extensive, which means the major mode of transportation was either foot or
bicycle. Travel distances to the other three sectiOns from the main ofﬁce in Hartebees
was as follows: 21 km to Lemondokop, 10 km to Midlewater, and 10 km to Vaalwater,
Most families in Hartebees had fewer than 2 hectares of land with their own
infrastructure that they had either built or leased from someone else. In addition, the
village had one community store, a primary and secondary school, an auto parts store,
and a town hall. All of these businesses contributed to the economic development and
grth of the village. Farmers did not have a cooperative or a storage facility for their
goods, but they managed to store them in makeshift buildings. Overall, the farmers made

do with the resources that were available to them in order to make ends meet.

81

Findings

Farmers from Sekgosese seemed to follow the same pattern of discussion as their
counterparts from Straydkraal, but they also reﬂected on situations unique to their area.
The ﬁndings from their interviews were categorized into the following areas of concern:
lack of access to markets, lack of cooperatives and postharvest rot, and lack of support
for the extension ofﬁcer.

Laid access to markets. Throughout my conversations with the farmers in this

area, they constantly expressed the need for accessible markets for their products. They

 

said it was not enough to have a local stand or comer market in their community.

Farmers expressed that the quality and quantity of their produce were of a high enough
standard to compete in major markets in Johannesburg and Pietersburg. These views
have been supported by groups such as IDEAA, which have recognized the importance of
smallholder farmers’ gaining access to markets and facilities (IDEAA, 1998a).

FlSEKO: My farm yields R20,000 in a good season and R5,000 during a bad
season. Ten crates is the normal production amount, but last year we had a bad
season. When was this? It was 1999/2000, because of ﬂoods. I market my
products to the local community and in Johannesburg. I don’t know how
tomatoes are marketed because I send them to Johannesburg via someone else. I
am not successful because they spoil before they reach Johannesburg. We don’t
have the proper facilities to keep the tomatoes before they leave. We need a
reﬁigerator or a storage facility, but we don’t have one. The only thing we can do
is hope and pray that our tomatoes will be healthy enough to survive and be
purchased.

An extension ofﬁcer described this situation during a focus group meeting:

OK, let’s take this example. In Sekekune in 1999, farmers wanting to sell in
Guateng Province, Jo’burg, [they] prepared their tomatoes and drove them there
but were turned away because they didn’t meet the quality standards. They didn’t
have the proper storage facilities to keep tomatoes good in a standard condition
producible for the market. [The] cost is too high for a majority of these farmers.
[They] can’t compete in this market so they are back to square one.

82

Another farmer spoke of difﬁculty in reaching markets outside of town. He
explained that the costs of transportation as well as inputs that are needed for productive
farming are too high for his small venture:

PM: Where do you market your goods?

FZSEKO: I don’t have transportation to market to Mketse, but I market to the
community of Mamaila.

N_W_: How much do you pay for transportation to reach the local market?

F ZSEKO: My transportation costs are R200 to R250, depending on the distance.

I must also use the bus to buy inputs, [which costs] R20 for a roundtrip. I pay

extra for luggage and bags, RS/bag.

N_W: How much do you pay for seeds and other inputs?

FZSEKO: Well, one bag of manure is R85 to R90.

ELY: Why is it a range of prices?

FZSEKO: Because different types determine the cost. I buy from the

cooperatives [he had just purchased six bags] because it is less expensive than

stores.

This farrner also mentioned a need for accessible markets in which to sell his
goods. The village had a reasonable number of inhabitants who would be able to provide
a steady ﬂow of income.

_Nﬂ: Where do you sell your products?

FZSEKO: I sell my products in the local community.

M: What do you sell?

FZSEKO: Beetroot; there is no market for beetroot, but the federal service

organization in the community will buy them for 4 rand per head. Last year, I

planted 700 seedlings and this yielded R200 [in proﬁt] because they were attacked

by disease.

One farmer explained how he had tried to expand his scope of farming, but was

unsuccessful due to circumstances beyond his control. This conversation stemmed from

83

 

1 .

 

a site visit to his garden, where he was showing me his new venture of growing green
tomatoes. He was proud of them because he knew they would be marketable if he had
the right market and support from the extension worker. He told me,

I am unable to market green tomatoes . . . because I don’t know how to prepare
them, so I am unable to sell them to individuals. If I knew of a recipe then I
would sell. . . . I also have another small venture—these seedlings of avocado,
peach, mango, apple, papaya, guava, and orange trees—but I don’t market these
to the greater community either. I only sell them to the local community, the
people in this village. They buy to plant in their own plots or small gardens. We
need someone to show us how to market these things. The extension ofﬁcer tries,
but he is so busy with his work. We must get these out to the community.

During the course of one set of interviews, one farmer explained another type of

marketing problem experienced by those who were involved in livestock production.

 

This situation affected only a few farmers in the village, but it indirectly inﬂuenced the
success of the entire farming community.

Even the extension ofﬁcer tries to help but has failed because the head of the
Agricultural Department has not solved the problem. [This was seen as a problem
that has to be addressed from the top down. The feeling was that if the
government is not involved and interested in the issue, it will not be solved. The
extension ofﬁcer must have support from the government to handle this problem]
It is a problem throughout the entire Northern Province. Cattle are being sold to
other white producers. It is a difﬁcult situation because cattle are being sold to
intensive breeding producers who can afford to push the price high at the local
markets. Basically, what is happening is that they [white cattle buyers] come into
our village and buy our quality cows for below market costs. Since they are our
only buyers, we must sell [the cows] to them. They then sell the cows in the local
markets for extremely high prices. We are not able to afford the meat [beef] from
our own cattle. This is what is happening today, right now!

Many of these farmers told me of incidents of cattle thievery in the village and the
lack of access to the white-dominated cattle-marketing industry, which had driven up the
cost of meat in many of the local markets. If these farmers were able to sell their
products in a COOperative, they could bypass the middleman and reestablish a sense of

power and ownership in their own community.

84

Lack of cooperatives and postharvest rot. Two areas of concern for the farmers
were the lack of cooperatives in their area and postharvest rot. Farmers seemed to lump
these together as one problem because they expressed that if they could form a
c00perative, they would not have the problem of postharvest rot. They would be able to
market their goods in a timely manner and thus avoid spoilage. Farmers saw this as a
constant problem for themselves and future generations. One farmer described the
problem in the interview:

11W: What types of issues are you facing right now?

F lSEKO: We have many issues in this area. Postharvest rot is an issue because

we have no place to sell our products. [We] need to bring a cooperative here for

maize through the extension ofﬁcer to help solve postharvest problems.

_N_W: What could the extension ofﬁcer do to help?

FlSEKO: If 1 am unable to get information from the extension ofﬁcer, I will try
and learn on my own. I am even prepared to go to school to learn.

N12: Will cooperatives help with the postharvest/marketing problem?
FlSEKO: Yes, it will help with many things.
_Nﬂ: Like what? Give me an example.
FlSEKO: If the extension ofﬁcer was able to help us form a cooperative, then
we would be able to move our food quickly. We could sell them at the
cooperative, and others would be able to beneﬁt. Other farmers could buy our
products, and families in the community could buy things cheaper than at the
stores in town.
Another farmer captured this feeling when he stated, “If there was a cooperative, I would
participate.”
By participation, farmers meant that they could purchase inputs such as seeds and
fertilizer for their plots. Farmers understood that a cooperative would provide them with

a less expensive option for purchasing inputs, create economic stability within the

community, and provide them with a sense of ownership. Many of these farmers viewed

85

 

a cooperative as a catalyst for success because it would enable them to support their
families and the community, a reward and an achievement in itself. Farmers expressed a
need to use the extension worker as a source of information. They were aware that he
could not give them the ﬁnancial support they needed, but they preferred that he serve as
a source of information about cooperatives and act as an on-going supporter of their
venture.

During the course of my visits, the farmers asked me to bring information about

cooperatives to our interviews. They assumed that my connection with UNIN and my

 

role as a researcher made me privy to information their extension worker did not have.
When I asked what type of information they wanted, they replied that in-depth
information on cooperatives would give them insight into and greater understanding of
what it would take to run this type of business. As one person stated, “The more
information we have, the greater the success we have.”

In addition to forming a cooperative, the issue of postharvest rot had become a
concern to farmers. During the apartheid era, they had been provided with storage areas
for harvested crops. Since the government had assumed control, however, locals who did
not understand the concept of democracy had vandalized many of these facilities. As a
result, farmers have had to deal with massive amounts of rot in their maize, which in turn
has decreased their proﬁts and overall household income. One farmer stated, “[There is
a] need to bring a cooperative here for maize through the extension ofﬁcer in order to
help solve postharvest problems. . . . If [we are] unable to get information from the
extension ofﬁce, we will try and learn on our own.”

F arrners thought that if the extension ofﬁcer could provide them with the means

to construct a postharvest facility, they would be in a better position to market their goods

86

in Johannesburg and Pietersburg. This, in turn, would increase their access to untapped
markets for rural farmers and provide them with a sense of accomplishment and
achievement.

Lack of training and support of extension ofﬁcers. Due to the previous
government’s programs and projects in the dry-land area, farmers had grown accustomed
to having extension ofﬁcers who were trained and supervised. This situation drastically
changed once the new government assumed ofﬁce. Even the Head of Region commented
on this scenario:

I help extension ofﬁcers when they need help, bring in outsiders to assist with
workshops such as the one in Soifentein that focused on Community Action
Development. It only worked with small gardens [plots], sewing, cooking, and
crocheting. F arrners need extension to help them. If they don’t see them daily/
weekly, then they will come directly to the Services Centre to seek assistance.
They only come when they have problems. If they wait for the extension ofﬁcer,
then it will be too late, especially in livestock; [problems] come quickly. Training
is no longer done because [government] transportation is not available. 1996-97
was the last time for ofﬁcial training; we were allotted 3,000/month/km, but after
6 months it was cut. . . . Because of this I can’t visit ofﬁcers daily. The problems
[lack of training and supervision] can be changed by Heads. . . . Sometimes I
think they don’t really know the work of the extension ofﬁcers and ﬁeld staff. If
money is allocated correctly, then the farmers and extension ofﬁcers beneﬁt.
Extension work is nice because you share ideas, ideas not being used when you
stay in the ofﬁce.

Additional conversations with farmers revealed that support of the extension
ofﬁcer needed to be expanded into support for resources and inputs for the farmers. The
following except from an interview demonstrates the farmers’ thoughts on this issue.

NW: What do you think is the biggest problem with the extension? Do you feel
that extension has problems?

FlSEKO: [Moment of silence] . . . The main problem is ﬁnancial support. We
don’t have that.

FZSEKO: [He cuts in] . . . We plow but don’t know what to do with what we
sow, let’s say tomatoes. If they are many, you ﬁnd that you can’t supply the local
people only. You have to take them somewhere. We don’t know where to sell
them. You have to take them very far, and it becomes costly for us.

87

r

NW: Did you explain this to the extension ofﬁcer?

FlSEKO: [A brief sigh] . . . Yes, but he did nothing about it. If the government
could at least provide a car to transport our crops to the markets, it would be very
ﬁne.

FZSEKO: I have the same problem as this farmer [sounding quite disgusted]—
no transportation to take my crops to market.

N_W_: Does the extension ofﬁcer have a car?

FlSEKO: [A quick response]: No.

ﬂ: Is that a problem?

FlSEKO: Yes. . . . [He looks perturbed] . . . The problem is what we have
already explained—that we don’t have support [from the extension ofﬁcer and the

government]. The other thing is the tractor; the government does not do anything
about it.

 

FZSEKO: Tractors. You have to pay about 300,000 rand per hectare.

F 3SEKO: The government does not support us as farmers. There’s no grazing,

[and] there’s a lot of stock [cattle] theft. That makes the farmers lose the spirit of

farming [lose hope].

The lack of support for farmers in this area has affected not only their welfare, but
their morale in general. It has been a challenge to keep the younger generation interested
in farming, and this general attitude has not helped to make the ﬁeld attractive. One
farmer seemed to understand the barriers faced by the extension ofﬁcer when he stated:

[Smirks] . . . [The] extension ofﬁcer is trying by all means to help them, but [has

failed] because the government is unable to help them—failed to build dams

because of lack of resources, tried to build fences but failed because of the
government. . . . During the apartheid era, police came and destroyed many
fences. Now [we are] asking the present government to repair fences, but they
haven’t come in to do this [although within the former homeland area, still
affected by police raids during apartheid].

In general, there was no ﬁnancial support for the extension ofﬁcer to help the

farmers. Infrastructure and farming resources had either been damaged or needed general

88

repairs, but the support currently was not available. F armersrspoke of how the situation
was different during the era of apartheid.

m: During the apartheid era, did you receive more or less information from the
E0?

FZSEKO: [We had] more resources during the apartheid era; you can see from
the infrastructure [points to the gates, posts, fences]. . . . This area served as a
storeroom which the government installed.

F 3SEKO: During the apartheid era, the government repaired fences and
inoculated cattle, but now the extension ofﬁcer is struggling to make this happen
[the E0 was present during apartheid-era repairs].

During an interview at his plot, the youngest of the interviewed farmers explained

how he had dealt with the lack of support in order to sustain his family.

 

F3SEKO: I prepare the ﬁelds and harvest them by myself.
ﬂ: What do you do with your crops after harvest?

F3SEKO: I don’t take the products to market because it is too far. [Looks
around] . . . Presently, I am looking at the community to see their wants; then I
will begin to plant those products which they demand. I have four children, three
of which are in school. It is tough to make it.

_N_W: How do you do it?

F3SEKO: I am a builder as well as a farmer [shows me where his house is across
the ﬁeld]. I built my own house, a ﬁve-room house costs 18,000 to 20,000 rand,
of which 9,000 comes back to me and 9,000 is for labor. . . . It is a lengthy
process. I may work on 10 per year. This money is for other costs for my family
like school fees and uniforms for my children. . . . Milies is from farming.

ﬂ: How much does this cost and how long does it last?

F3SEKO: It costs 120 to 180 rand per kg and only lasts one and a half months. I
get my water from the river to use for irrigation [he was the only farmer who had
clear access to water, unblocked by trees and vegetation].

I‘M: How did you get a darn?

F3SEKO: I only use one dam, which I built myself. . . . I sold a cow to build the
dam.

N_W: How much did it cost?
89

F 3SEKO: I collected 1,196 rand from [selling a] cow and then added my own
money to subsidize costs [total building cost was R1,600].

N_W_: Why did you build a dam?

F 3SEKO: Before the dam, I had to pump directly from the river to ﬁelds.

The foregoing comments demonstrate the need for the provincial government to
ﬁnd ways to enable the rural extension worker to help smallholder farmers so that they
may experience a better quality of life. The training and technical support that the
extension worker receives must segue into physical and emotional support for the
farmers. Because the extension worker cannot provide ﬁnancial support, he must be able
to sustain farrners’ morale through farm visits and provision of pertinent and timely

information.

Comparison of Responses From the Two Sites

Recurring themes in the ﬁndings at both sites were the need for better training and
supervision of extension ofﬁcers, better access to markets, and better quality of services
to farmers. Farmers at the two sites differed in their responses regarding the issues of
forming cooperatives, dealing with postharvest rot, and lack of support of the extension
ofﬁcer by the government. These issues were unique to Sekgosese due to its remote
location and the inability to move harvested crops out of the area during the rainy season.
Limited tarred roads and inadequate transportation created a situation that inhibited the
movement of farmers and the extension worker out of the village, which contributed to
many of their problems. In addition, the inadequate transformation of power and
structure to the staff in several agricultural organizations caused discrepancies in
leadership and program delivery. Overall, the farmers had more than 20 years of

experience in the ﬁeld and saw that changes in extension needed to happen quickly in

90

 

order to give them a better quality of life. Now is the time for extension to put together a

plan of action to ﬁilﬁll their commitment to enhance the life of rural smallholder farmers.

 

'ﬁ

91

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, MAJOR FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS,
RECOMMENDATIONS, AND REFLECTIONS

_Smmnz

My purpose in this qualitative study was to identify the perceived needs of
smallholder farmers in the Northern Province of South Africa in relation to the delivery
of information and programs by the agricultural extension service. The intention was to
provide baseline information on the current extension system in the Northern Province.
Through this qualitative study, smallholder farmers were able to provide valuable input
with regard to the restructuring of the extension system, in the hope of ultimately meeting
their needs.

This study was undertaken to address the changing times for rural smallholder
farmers and the extension system in the Northern Province of South Africa. Six farmers
from two villages in the Northern Province were purposefully selected to participate in
the study. These villages represented the types of rural smallholder farming done in this
area, dry-crop and irrigated farming. Others who contributed valuable information
through focus groups were from various areas in the extension system.

At present, the extension system is not meeting the immediate needs of rural
farmers in the Northern Province. Systematic laws, inadequate training and lack of
supervision of extension ofﬁcers, and insufﬁcient communication and transportation
services have led to a number of problems and inequities within the system. Recognizing
the need to restructure the extension system, the South African government has enacted a
series of laws and policies designed to enhance the quality of life for smallholder farmers.

Smallholder farmers, extension staff, and others in extension have been involved with

92

 

this process and will continue to serve a vital role in bringing about changes in the future.
The perception held by smallholder farmers was one of respect for the extension service,

yet disappointment with the job the service has done thus far.

Mav'Lor Findings
Five research questions were posed to guide the collection of data for this study.

In the following paragraphs, each question is restated, along with a summary of the

"'-_ .T'SLT‘I.‘

ﬁndings pertaining to that question.

Research Question 1: To what extent does the delivery of technical information
and methods by the Northern Province extension system affect the productivity,
economic inputs, and quality of life of smallholder farmers in the Northern
Province?

 

[F

Farmers perceived that the extension system in the Northern Province has not
been meeting their needs through the information delivered by the extension ofﬁcers.
Although information was delivered, often it did not meet the speciﬁc needs of the
farmers or take into consideration their unique situations, such as untarred roads and
drought damage. Farmers realized that, in order to improve their own lives, they would
need to be proactive and help the extension ofﬁcers in realizing and addressing their
speciﬁc situations.

Research Question 2. What are the barriers of the present extension system for
smallholder farmers?

Farmers perceived both tangible and intangible barriers to the extension system.
Resources and inputs needed for farming were not accessible and required economic
stability, which was not feasible for the farmers. Past discriminatory laws and policies
had inﬂuenced the process of gaining access to credit and the quality of services

provided. Other barriers such as lack of transportation and poor roads were barriers that

93

the farmers perceived as being the responsibility of the provincial government. If the
roads were repaired, it would improve the quality of extension services.
Research Question 3. How do past and present government policies affect the
educational delivery methods of the extension system for smallholder farmers in
the Northern Province?
Because the farmers perceived the past laws and policies as barriers, they also
realized that those laws and policies had limited the overall development of the rural
farming community. Many of the laws restricted quality education and training for E

extension staff who worked with smallholder farmers, limiting their upward professional

mobility and development. The resources needed for extension staff to work with

 

smallholder farmers were unavailable or inadequate, thus preventing the success that had ”a
been achieved in the commercial farming sector. Extension officers were only able to

deliver information they already knew or had learned in a training session more than 2

years before.

Research Question 4. What is the effect of support services on the productivity
and yields of farmers in the Northern Province?

Farmers had not had a productive yield in the past year due to inadequate support
from the extension service as well as drought conditions. Farmers in the dry-land area
perceived their productivity and yields to be extremely low because they were not able to
store their goods and transport them to the major markets. This they saw as a result of
the extension ofﬁcer’s lack of information on postharvest facilities and cooperatives.
Large portions of their crops had been destroyed due to postharvest rot. In addition,
farmers who were involved in livestock production experienced theﬁ and loss of income
due to the prices at which they had to sell cattle to white commercial farmers.

F arrners in the irrigated area perceived the support services provided by extension

as weak because they suffered from theft and damage to their irrigation schemes.

94

Transformers and other equipment had been damaged, but the extension ofﬁcer was not
able to provide farmers with either ﬁnancial support or tactical help to remedy this
situation.

Research Question 5. How appropriate is the information provided by extension
ofﬁcers to smallholder farmers?

Generally speaking, the farmers thought the information provided by extension
ofﬁcers was appropriate for their immediate needs, but if they were to expand their
farming ventures, they would need further information. Farmers understood that the
information was dated and untimely, but they realized that the extension ofﬁcer could

work only with the resources he had at his disposal.

Conclusions

The ﬁndings from the study evidenced a consensus among smallholder farmers
concerning the lack of information and training of extension ofﬁcers and the impact of
the Northern Province’s extension service. Much of the information they received was
dated and irrelevant to expansion of their plots. The training that extension ofﬁcers did
receive lacked content and input from the farmers. Also, many of the farmers needed
information about gaining better access to inputs and markets and maintaining existing
resources.

The extension system must be transformed in order for there to be a positive
change in the lives of smallholder farmers. The goals and functions of the extension
system must be geared to meeting the speciﬁc needs of smallholder farmers. The social
dynamics and relationship of smallholder farmers to the rest of South Africa’s farming

structure must be taken into consideration. Extension staff must be considered a whole

95

l

unit, not separated and compartmentalized into sections that only meet the needs of viable
farming communities.

Laws and policies that once served to discriminate against smallholder farmers
should now be shifted to reﬂect their importance in the scheme of farming and economic
stability for all of South Africa. Laws developed to meet the needs of smallholder
farmers must take into account their perceptions and local situations. It is not enough to
enact policies without knowing the true circumstances of smallholder farmers and the
farming community because one greatly affects the other. Smallholder farmers’

involvement in the local provinces will inﬂuence the decisions made by extension as they

 

are seen as a vital part of rural farming communities.

‘F

This qualitative study of smallholder farmers exposed many issues with which
they are dealing. Although the participants were from different areas of the province,
they still shared similar experiences in farming and existence as rural farmers. Their
perceptions of the current extension system revealed that there are problems within the
system that directly relate to the success and sustainability of smallholder farmers

throughout the Northern Province.

Implications

As a result of this study, smallholder farmers and the extension service in the
Northern Province of South Aﬁica can work toward a more holistic goal of meeting the
needs of smallholder farmers and a new class of emerging farmers who face similar
barriers. A holistic approach would include participatory involvement by the major
farming sectors, researchers, agricultural organizations, academic institutions, and the

provincial government.

96

 

Another outcome of this study could be a move toward the formation of outreach
and grassroots programs within smallholder farmers’ communities and tribal leadership
councils. Through such programs, smallholder farmers would gain access to valuable
resources and information with which to improve their situations. In addition,
smallholder farmers would serve as proactive agents for change and add to the collective
body of knowledge about their communities and farming lifestyles.

As smallholder farmers’ exposure within mainstream farming is increased, they E
will have a better chance to be seen as viable economic contributors to the agricultural
sector. Stakeholders and decision makers will begin to realize the importance of ‘

smallholder farmers to the gross domestic product of the Northern Province and of South

 

Africa as a whole. The engagement of smallholder farmers in South African society can
improve the understanding of these unique farmers and help in the development of
appropriate literature and programs to address their needs. Then, as farmers begin to
become a part of the system, they must contribute to other types of programs that affect
rural farmers and farming communities.

Land-redistribution programs need to include the knowledge and technology of
smallholder farmers in order to prepare projects and management appropriate to them.
Smallholder farmers’ needs should be considered as important and used in developing
critical schemes that affect several rural areas in South Africa.

Finally, development of and involvement in smallholder communities could affect
the organization and mobilization of programs, services, and management. Smallholder
farmers should be involved in the needs-identiﬁcation process and play an integral role in

program planning and implementation. This would enable services to be linked more

97

closely with smallholder farmers, provide greater accountability to farmers, and give

farmers better access to services and inputs.

Recommendations
The following recommendations for practice and further research are made as a

result of this study.

Recommendations for Przgice

1. A clear vision of smallholder farmers and their role in the entire South African
agricultural sector should be developed.

2. Smallholder farmers and representatives of educational institutions,
nongovernmental organizations, and the provincial government should be included as
participants in planning sessions of the extension system.

3. Participatory and continuous training should be provided for extension staff
and ofﬁcers who work with smallholder farmers and their communities.

4. Training in the areas of communication, conﬂict resolution, adult learning,
facilitation, and action planning should be provided for all extension staff.

5. University agricultural extension education staff should be included in training
sessions and staff-development programs for extension employees.

6. There should be a focus on needs-driven research and training for extension
staff to meet the needs of farming communities.

7. Governmental subsidies should be provided by the provincial government to
assist with transportation costs and telephones for extension staff (ofﬁcers and

supervisors) serving remote and rural areas.

98

 

 

8. Smallholder farmers and agricultural organizations should collaborate in
developing business and funding plans for the maintenance of irrigation schemes.
9. The local agricultural university and local tribal leaders should collaborate to

address the needs of smallholder farmers and to implement programs to meet those needs.

Recommendations for Further Research

 

1. Further research should be conducted on emerging farmers in the Northern
Province and other provinces of South Africa.
2. A study should be done of the perceptions of smallholder farmers in the other

eight provinces in South Africa.

 

3. Similar studies should be undertaken to assist in the formulation of

government guidelines and policies that affect smallholder farmers.

Reﬂections

It is imperative that my beliefs and sensitivities on the topic of quality extension
be set forth, along with those of the participants, because this research was premised on
the critical-theorist assumption of transformation and power. This information assisted in
identifying the unique lens through which I would view the study, as well as how values
were embedded in the interview process.

Several experiences piqued my curiosity about this t0pic, which may illustrate
some of my perspectives. Early in my graduate career, I had the opportunity to travel to

South Aﬁica and observe extension staff and their interactions with farmers. There was a

 

tremendous difference between the services rendered to smallholder farmers and to
commercial farmers. Smallholder farmers did not have the same access to or quality of

services as did their commercial counterparts. As I asked rural farmers how they

99

 

received technical information and inputs, they were frank in speaking of imbalances
within the extension system and how those inequities had affected their families for
years.

As I considered ideas for a research topic, it became clear that, in order for change
to occur at the grassroots level of extension in South Africa’s Northern Province, the
current system would need to be examined. From my conversations with advisors and
others who had been involved in agricultural work in the Northern Province, it became
apparent that research had been done within extension, but it lacked the depth of the main
constituents of extension, smallholder farmers. I also noticed that research conducted
with small-scale farmers in mind had failed to recognize apartheid’s discriminatory
policies and the need to reorganize and reorient extension staff. Failure to understand the
complexities of apartheid, as well as its engrained presence in society, caused discomfort
at the outset of the research.

After arriving in South Africa, I was able to relinquish my apprehensions about
the apartheid system and its role in society. Interacting with individuals who lived on
both sides of apartheid increased my appreciation; more important, my understanding of
South Africa’s history was enhanced. I was also able to see the effects of power and race
on smallholder farmers.

During my time in South Africa, I traveled to remote and urban areas to talk with
rural farmers in an attempt to understand their lives. These experiences allowed me to
explore issues from my perspective as a woman and a Westerner. From these reﬂections,
my identity as a critical theorist was formed. As a part of the critical-race-theory

paradigm, I had to remain aware of the long-term effects of apartheid’s power and racial

100

 

 

disparities on rural farmers. The visibility of power in South Africa had spread through
institutions such as extension, creating a blurred process of information exchange.

I believe that the extension system in the Northern Province has the potential to
meet the needs of rural farmers. Regardless of the political turmoil that once plagued the
country, policymakers, politicians, extension staff, and rural farmers shared a vision for
remaking the extension service. They shared their concerns about the new provincial
government and how this would affect extension services for rural farmers. Many
wondered what was going to happen in the rural areas as the focus had been shifted to
redeveloping and restructuring extension. Although they expressed these concerns, they
understood the complexities of the extension system, as well as the effect it would have
on their overall quality of life.

Finally, I believe that the potential for change in the extension system stems from
the dialogue and rich ﬂow of information engendered by this type of study. Cursory and

limited discussions stiﬂe the exchange of information that is vital to effecting change.

101

 

 

APPENDICES

102

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX A

MAPS OF THE STUDY AREAS

 

103

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104

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105

APPENDIX B

INTRODUCTORY LETTER AND CONSENT FORM

106

 

You are invited to participate in a research project entitled “Smallholder Farmers’
Perceptions of the Northern Province’s Extension Service: Case Studies in Two Villages
in the Northern Province of South Aﬁ‘ica.” The research is being conducted by Nicole

S. Webster, Ph.D. student in Agriculture and Natural Resources and Communication
Systems, College of Agriculture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

You received and read the letter from Nicole S. Webster dated , which
brieﬂy described the purpose and procedure of the research. The letter included her name,
address, and methods of communication in case you have any questions or concerns
about the study. The study concerns the impact of the South African extension services
on rural small-scale farmers in selected villages in the Northern Province.

 

The purpose of the study is to understand the perceptions of extension education
programs from the view of small-scale farmers. The information gained from this study
will provide the agricultural community, the Department of Agriculture, and agricultural
schools with current data speciﬁc to the Northern Province of South Africa, so that
programs and development projects will be more inclusive of the rural farming
community. The study will also provide small-scale or subsistence farmers an
opportunity to provide their perspectives on the extension service.

During this phase of the study, you will be asked 15 to 20 questions. If you agree to
participate, you will be interviewed at least one time, for approximately an hour. You
will be asked to reﬂect on your ﬁeld experiences with extension agents in your particular
area, your overall interactions with your extension ofﬁcer, the number of years you have
spent farming, contact time you spend with the extension ofﬁcer, personal characteristics
of the extension ofﬁcer, and size and type of crop grown.

All written items that you share will be returned to you. The interviews will be recorded
by hand, and you have the right not to answer any particular questions and to ask that
your answers not be recorded at any given time. After the completion of the interview,
you will have an opportunity to ask me questions regarding the research.

All data will be kept conﬁdential, and your identity will not be disclosed in the ﬁnal
report. Your participation in this study is completely voluntary, and the information
recorded will be kept in a locked ﬁle. You may choose to withdraw at any time without
penalty. Your privacy will be protected to the maximum extent allowed by law.

If you have questions about the study, please contact:

Frank Brewer, Ph.D.
Michigan State University
410 Agriculture Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-355-6580

email: brewert@msu.edu

107

 

If you should have any questions regarding your role and rights as a subject, please
contact:

David E. Wright, Ph.D.

University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects
Michigan State University

246 Hannah Administration Building

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-355-2180

 

I have read the consent form and volunteer to participate in this study.

 

 

Signature Date

 

Print Name

108

 

APPENDIX C

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

109

10.

ll.

12.

13.

14.

Individual Farmer Interviews—Original Questions
What are the perceived barriers/limitations to the extension staff serving your
educational needs?

How do past and present policies inﬂuence the delivery of educational
programs to rural farmers?

How do past and present policies inﬂuence credit services?

How do past and present policies inﬂuence the acquisition of seeds and
fertilizers?

How do past and present policies inﬂuence cooperatives?
How do past and present policies inﬂuence irrigation services?
How satisﬁed are farmers with extension information?

Is this satisfaction due to the type of information delivered or the delivery
method?

How relevant is the information of extension staff?

Are extension programs delivered in a timely manner?

How affordable are the extension services?

Do extension programs allow you to provide feedback?

What opportunities are provided to you to participate in extension programs?

How often are extension programs delivered to you?

110

 

10.

ll.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

Individual Farmer Interviews—Revised Questions
What are the perceived barriers/limitations to the extension staff serving your
educational needs?

How do past and present policies inﬂuence the delivery of educational
programs to rural farmers?

How do past and present policies inﬂuence credit services?

How do past and present policies inﬂuence the acquisition of seeds and F
fertilizers?

How do past and present policies inﬂuence cooperatives?
How do past and present policies inﬂuence irrigation services?

How satisﬁed are farmers with extension information?

 

Is this satisfaction due to the type of information delivered or the delivery
method?

How relevant is the information of extension staff?

Are extension programs delivered in a timely manner?

How affordable are the extension services?

Do extension programs allow you to provide feedback?
What opportunities are provided to you to participate in extension programs?
How often are extension programs delivered to you?

How often does the extension ofﬁcer visit you in your plots?
How long have you been farming in this area?

What crops are you currently farming?

How much do you yield in a season?

Where do you market your goods?

How many people are in your immediate family?

Would you pay for extension services in the future?

111

22. Were the services better during the apartheid era?

23. Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven’t asked you?

112

Focus Group Questions—Extension Ofﬁcers
How often do you participate in training sessions that help in your job
performance?
How relevant is the information you deliver to smallholder farmers?
How affordable are the extension services provided to smallholder farmers?

How satisﬁed to you think rural farmers are with the information they receive
from extension services?

How often are extension programs delivered to rural farmers?

What do you perceive as barriers/limitations to your delivering educational
information to rural farmers?

Have past or present extension policies played a role in the delivery of extension
programs to smallholder farmers?

113

 

APPENDIX D

APPROVAL LETTER FROM THE UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ON
RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN SUBJECTS

114

 

MICHIGAN STATE
0 N l v E R s I T Y

 

September 7, 2001

TO: Frank L. BREWER
49 Agriculture Hall

RE: IRB# 01-394 CATEGORY: EXEMPT 1-C, 1-D, 1-E
APPROVAL DATE: August 30, 2001

TITLE: THE PERCEPTIONS OF EXTENSION EDUCATION PROGRAMS WITHIN
SELECTED NORTHERN PROVINCIAL RURAL COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH
AFRICA

The University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects' (UCRIHS) review of this
project is complete and I am pleased to advise that the rights and welfare of the human
subjects appear to be adequately protected and methods to obtain informed consent are
appropriate. Therefore, the UCRIHS approved this project.

RENEWALS: UCRIHS approval is valid for one calendar year, beginning with the approval date
shown above. Projects continuing beyond one year must be renewed with the green renewal
form. A maximum of four such expedited renewals possible. Investigators wishing to continue a
project beyond that time need to submit it again for a complete review.

REVISIONS: UCRIHS must review any changes in procedures involving human subjects. prior
to initiation of the change. If this is done at the time of renewal, please use the green renewal
form. To revise an approved protocol at any other time during the year. send your written
request to the UCRIHS Chair, requesting revised approval and referencing the project's IRB#
and title. Include in your request a description of the change and any revised instruments,
consent forms or advertisements that are applicable.

PROBLEMSICHANGES: Should either of the following arise during the course of _the work.
notify UCRIHS promptly. 1) problems (unexpected side effects. complaints, etc.) involving
human subjects or 2) changes in the research environment or new information indicating
greater risk to the human subjects than existed when the protocol was previously reviewed and
approved.

If we can be of further assistance, please contact us at (517) 355-2180 or via email:
UCRIHS@msu.edu. Please note that all UCRIHS forms are located on the web:
htth/wwwmsuedu/user/ucrihs ‘

Sincerely,

J W927;

Ashir Kumar, MD.
UCRIHS Chair

115

 

APPENDIX E

CORRESPONDENCE

116

UNIVERSITY OF THE NORTH

Private Bag X1106
SOVENGA

0727

SOUTH AFRICA

Tel: (015) 268 2203/2371
Int.Tel: 27-15-268 2203 12371
Fax: (015) 268 2592

Int. Fax. 27-15-253 2892

March 28, 2001

Nicole Webster

Michigan State University
Department of Extension Education
Fax: 517 353 4981

De: Nicole

VISIT TO UNIVERSITY OF THE NORTH

    

FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE

Reference is made b your faxed letter of March 9, 2001 and our telephone conversation thereafter. We welcome
you to do your reseach in the Northern Province and possibly assist teaching one course to my Masters

students in Agricultural Extension.

We will organize your accommodation at the University guest house outside campus (32kms away) and you'll
have to organize your own transport. The guest house chages about R750,00 per month.

Ofﬁce space may be a problem butwewill tryto tlnd space thatyou’ll shzewith someone in the departl'nent
Failureto acquire spacewill mean thatmuch ofyourwonrimll be doneinthe library orathome.

We look fonrvard to working with you in June.

Sincerely

M

N M Mollel

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