scholarly journals ANALYSIS OF PROFITABILITY OF SMALLHOLDER IRRIGATED FOOD PLOTS IN THE EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lelethu Mdoda ◽  
Ajuruchukwu Obi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Eastern Cape Province ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Gross Margin ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Crop Farming ◽  
Food Plots

Smallholder irrigation farming is transformative to poor households as they improve livelihoods and alleviate poverty but little has been done to quantify their profitability. The present study assessed the profitability of smallholder irrigated crop farmers in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and ascertained their determinants. A multi-stratified technique was employed to select 120 smallholder irrigated crop farmers. Data were analysed using gross margin and multiple regression models. Results showed that crop production is profitable. Farm experience, years spent in school, access to credit, distance to markets, and tractor use were found to have a bearing on the profitability of the irrigated crop farmers. Based on the results, crop farming is identified as crucial for jobs and poverty reduction.  

scholarly journals Determinants of Access to Formal Credit by the Poor Households

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mduduzi Biyase ◽  
Bianca Fisher
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Household Head ◽  
National Income ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Heckman Selection Model ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Primary Means

Abstract This paper investigates the determinants of access to formal credit by poor households in South Africa. Despite some progress in poverty reduction in the recent years, it remains astonishingly high by historical and international standards. Access to credit is believed by some scholars to be a primary means to address poverty and improve the standards of living of poor households. Thus, it is necessary to identify the determinants of the propensity to borrow and of the amount that is borrowed. Using 2008-2012 data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), a Heckman Selection model was estimated. The results from this study suggest that age of the household head, race, educational level, gender, employment, geographic location of households affect the propensity to borrow by poor households in South Africa.

scholarly journals Small, micro and medium enterprises financing: Costs and benefits of lending technologies in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edson Mbedzi ◽  
Munacinga Simatele
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Black People ◽  
Credit Rationing ◽  
Eastern Cape Province ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
The Government ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
Lending Technologies

Orientation: As lack of access to credit hinders small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) success and lending technologies being conduits transmit credit access, more focus must be on the effect of lending technologies on credit rationing.Research purpose: To analyse the extent of credit rationing amongst SMMEs based on lender and firm characteristics.Motivation for the study: In South Africa, SMMEs are funded by different lenders using different lending technologies, but little is known about which ones are more effective.Research approach/design and method: The study takes a quantitative approach. In this study, 321 SMMEs are sampled from 1486 small businesses on the registers of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber and the Border-Kei Chamber of Business in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Financing of SMMEs is captured with a categorical credit-rationing variable. Accordingly, a logit technique is used. The first model captures credit rationing as a binary variable. In the second model, the nature of credit rationing is disaggregated resulting in a four-measure categorical variable.Main findings: Little rationing occurs when asset-based and venture capital methods are used. Microfinance and privately owned development financial institutions have high rationing levels, similar to commercial banks, defeating the purpose of their special existence to address excluded groups. Black people-owned and female-owned businesses are the most rationed. Credit rationing decreases with firm size, but the effects are amplified by race.Practical/managerial implications: To improve SMMEs access to finance, the government should focus on allocating funds to firms using SMMEs’ credit rationing risk profiles.Contribution/value-add: Lending technology, lender type and SMME characteristics relationships indicate that SMMEs can benefit from a well-understood rationing risk profile of firms in the economy. Therefore, policies on support and regulation of the distribution of loan portfolios aligned to empirical rationing risk profiles can improve SMME growth. However, this study has used SMME data from the Eastern Cape province only, one of the nine provinces in South Africa. Thus, the provincial heterogeneity effects are not captured in this study.

Influence of Knowledge Management Practices on Public Service Delivery by Municipalities

Mousaion ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charleen Musonza ◽  
Ndakasharwa Muchaonyerwa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Eastern Cape Province ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Public Service Delivery

This study examines the influence of knowledge management (KM) practices on public service delivery by municipalities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The study sought to determine the factors that have triggered the implementation of KM practices; the effectiveness of KM practices towards public service delivery; and the extent to which KM practices have influenced public service delivery by municipalities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study. Quantitative data were collected through a survey questionnaire administered to a sample of 202 employees at the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality in the Eastern Cape. Qualitative data were collected through observations and interviews of 2 senior managers. The data collected gave a response rate of 72 per cent. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed descriptively and presented verbatim respectively. The results indicated that the internal and external factors included in this study have contributed to the implementation of KM practices in the municipality. Furthermore, the effective use of KM practices has increased the organisational KM initiative, as well as the provision of services such as electricity, education, transport, and social services by the municipality. The study recommends the establishment of KM awareness and the establishment of an integrated system that will assist in effective knowledge sharing, retention and acquisition across municipalities in the Eastern Cape.

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