scholarly journals Constraints to Cultivation of Medicinal Plants by Smallholder Farmers in South Africa

Horticulturae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 531
Author(s):  
Ifeoma Nwafor ◽  
Christopher Nwafor ◽  
Idah Manduna

Growing demand for therapeutic products from indigenous medicinal plants has led to increased interest in its cultivation, which presents a viable option for improving smallholder farmers’ livelihoods, as well as sustaining the availability of these resources for future generations. Serious bottlenecks however exist for subsistent farmers in the cultivation of these valuable plants. It was pertinent to probe whether the cultivation of medicinal plants provides feasible solutions to rural poverty, while effectively conserving threatened indigenous biodiversity. The paper employed a comprehensive review of existing literature to explore issues constraining smallholder farmers from involvement in a potentially lucrative plant value chain. Findings indicate challenges such as inadequate domestication of valuable plants species, continued over-harvesting from wild populations, poor knowledge of required agronomic practices, low efficacy perception regarding derivatives from cultivated plants, among others. These constraints occur alongside the conservation-oriented strategy driven by international conservation agencies and wholly adopted by the South African government. Recommendations to improve smallholder involvement in the cultivation of medicinal plants include support to research and extension, targeted inducement to smallholders, contracting and off-take agreements, aimed at promoting an alternative poverty-alleviation-focused economic development strategy. The review adds to the conceptual discourse related to plant diversity, resource conservation, poverty alleviation, and economic development

Author(s):  
Christopher Nwafor

South Africa has an abundant heritage of valuable indigenous plants with recognized medicinal value. The reported critical over-harvesting of wild populations is considered an urgent issue for biodiversity conservation. Growing demand for therapeutic products from indigenous medicinal plants have led to increased interest in its cultivation. Cultivation of these indigenous medicinal plants represent a viable option for improving smallholder farmers’ livelihoods, as well as sustaining the availability of these resources for future generations. Serious bottlenecks however exists for subsistent farmers in the cultivation of these valuable plants. It was pertinent to probe whether the cultivation of medicinal plants provide feasible solutions to rural poverty, while effectively conserving threatened indigenous biodiversity. The paper employed a comprehensive review of existing literature to explore relevant issues constraining smallholder farmers from involvement in a potentially lucrative medicinal plants value-chain. Findings indicate challenges such as inadequate domestication of valuable plants species, continued over-harvesting from wild populations, poor knowledge of required agronomic practices, low efficacy perception regarding derivatives from cultivated plants, among a multitude of others. These constraints exists alongside the conservation-oriented strategy driven by international conservation agencies and wholly adopted by the South African government. Recommendations to improve smallholder involvement in the cultivation of medicinal plants include support to research and extension, targeted inducement to smallholders, contracting and off-take agreements, aimed at promoting an alternative poverty-alleviation-focused economic development strategy. The review adds to the conceptual discourse related to plant diversity, resource conservation, poverty alleviation and economic development within the medicinal plants value-chain.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 462
Author(s):  
Hongyu Wang ◽  
Xiaolei Wang ◽  
Apurbo Sarkar ◽  
Lu Qian

Market-based initiatives like agriculture value chain (AVC) are becoming progressively pervasive to support smallholder rural farmers and assist them in entering larger market interventions and providing a pathway of enhancing their socioeconomic well-being. Moreover, it may also foster staggering effects towards the post-era poverty alleviation in rural areas and possessed a significant theoretical and practical influence for modern agricultural development. The prime objective of the study is to explore the effects of smallholder farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain for availing rural development and poverty alleviation. Specifically, we have crafted the assessment employing pre-production (improved fertilizers usage), in-production (modern preservation technology), and post-production (supply chain) participation and interventions of smallholder farmers. The empirical data has been collected from a micro survey dataset of 623 kiwifruit farmers from July to September in Shaanxi, China. We have employed propensity score matching (PSM), probit, and OLS models to explore the multidimensional poverty reduction impact and heterogeneity of farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain. The results show that the total number of poor farmers who have experienced one-dimensional and two-dimensional poverty is relatively high (66.3%). We also find that farmers’ participation in agricultural value chain activities has a significant poverty reduction effect. The multidimensional poverty level of farmers using improved fertilizer, organizational acquisition, and using storage technology (compared with non-participating farmers) decreased by 30.1%, 46.5%, and 25.0%, respectively. The multidimensional poverty reduction degree of male farmers using improved fertilizer and participating in the organizational acquisition is greater than that of women. The multidimensional poverty reduction degree of female farmers using storage and fresh-keeping technology has a greater impact than the males using storage and improved storage technology. Government should widely promote the value chain in the form of pre-harvest, production, and post-harvest technology. The public–private partnership should also be strengthened for availing innovative technologies and infrastructure development.


1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Anne Pitcher

Mozambique has undergone some dramatic changes in recent years. The government concluded a 17-year-old civil war in 1992 and held democratic elections in 1994. Following the adoption of structural adjustment policies after 1987, the government eliminated subsidies on food and consumer items, pledged its support for emerging markets, and has now sold most state companies to private investors. These changes have generated much interest among researchers and policymakers, particularly with regard to their impact on the countryside, where the majority of Mozambicans live and work. Recent studies have focused on the most appropriate rural development strategy for Mozambique now that the war has ended, or examined ways to alleviate the widespread poverty that still exists in rural areas. Other work has analysed the structure of agrarian relations or how to ensure food security. Additional research has criticised the government's on-going policy of encouraging and granting land concessions to private investors. It claims that the policy lacks transparency and fails to consider the rights of local communities.


2007 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 333-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A Donaldson

AbstractHow did the differing strategies adopted to develop tourism in Guizhou and Yunnan affect patterns of economic development and poverty reduction? The answer is paradoxical. Both provincial governments incorporated tourism as part of their overall development strategies, but their tourism sites were distributed and structured strikingly differently. In Yunnan, although tourism contributed to rapid economic growth, it did not reduce rural poverty as much as might be expected from a large rural-based industry. By contrast, Guizhou's relatively small-scale tourism industry, although not contributing significantly to growth, was distributed largely in poor areas and was structured to allow poor people to participate directly. The conclusions have implications for our understanding of provincial development strategy in China and ways that tourism can be used for development and poverty reduction.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
B.S. Ghuman ◽  
Gurpinder Chima

India adopted a centralized development strategy after independence. The development strategy focusing on high growth postulated that the benefits of such growth would percolate down and would mitigate problems of income inequality, unemployment and poverty. Empirical evidence of the 1950s and 1960s, however, did not lend support to this ‘trickle down’ hypothesis. As a consequence social justice (i.e. equity) was added as another principal concern to the development strategy. In the 1970’s, ‘Garibi Hatao’ (i.e. removal of poverty) was the buzzword among policy makers. With a view to solve the problems of unemployment and poverty, both the central and the state governments initiated a series of programs. The growing significance of poverty alleviation programs in planning evinced interest among scholars for poverty studies. The objective of the paper is to make an assessment of public programs for alleviating rural poverty. The paper is organized into five sections. In Section I, data and methodology used in the study have been explained. Public programs for rural poverty alleviation programs have been described in Section II. Section III deals with the extent of rural poverty across the states. In Section IV assessment of public programs for rural poverty has been made. Section V includes conclusions and policy recommendations.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Sururi

This study was designed to map the potential and problems of local resources in improving the rural economy, an understanding of the technology needs for rural economic development and rural economic development strategy through technological approach to poverty alleviation. The method used in this study is a Location Quotient (LQ) to determine whether there is an area of specialization for certain sectors. By LQ analysis intended to look at sectors which are the basis of sectors and sectors not base, then continued into the analysis of SWOT analysis. Results showed that the average index of location quetion most rural areas each having economic potential seed and if it refers to the results of the calculation of average Location quetion (LQ) subsector of agriculture at the top then there are many villages that have criteria for the achievement of the average calculation LQ is greater than one (1) or LQ> 1. Later in this study have also been generated operationally recommendation against the use of science and technology of leading sectors that have been mapped. Artikel ini merupakan post print version yang sudah terbit di jurnal Litbangda, Volume 6 Nomor 1 , Juni 2015


2008 ◽  
pp. 119-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Senchagov

The core of Russia’s long-term socio-economic development strategy is represented by its conceptual basis. Having considered debating points about the essence and priority of the strategy, the author analyzes the logic and stages of its development as well as possibilities, restrictions and risks of high GDP rates of growth.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Setsuko Matsuzawa

This article explores the relations between a foreign aid donor and local actors in the context of the dissemination of development discourses and practices in an authoritarian context. It addresses the question “To what extent may the local dynamics alter the original goals of a donor and lead to unintended consequences?” Based on archival research, interviews, and secondary literature, this case study examines the Yunnan Uplands Management Project (YUM) in 1990–95, the Ford Foundation's first grant program on rural poverty alleviation in China. While the Foundation did not attain its main goal of making YUM a national model for poverty alleviation, the local actors were able to use YUM to develop individual capacities and to build roles for themselves as development actors in the form of associations and nongovernmental organizations, resulting in further support from the Foundation. The study contributes to our understanding of donor-local actor dynamics by highlighting the gaps between the original goals of a donor and the perspectives and motivations of local actors. The study suggests that local dynamics may influence the goals of donors and the ways they seek to disseminate development discourses and practices to local actors, despite the common conception of donors as hegemonic or culturally imperialistic.


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