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    Start Over Subject Term agricultural development Subject Term small farmers Journal Title South African Journal of Agricultural Extension

    1. Information and communication technologies (ICT) towards agricultural development in rural areas: case of smallholder farmers in Umzimvubu local municipality of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa Authors

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Makaula, Z. (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2021-05-25
    Published:
    South Africa: Academy of Science of South Africa
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12307
    Journal Title:
    South African Journal of Agricultural Extension
    Journal Title Details:
    Vol. 49 No. 1 (2021)
    Notes:
    11 pages., This paper was initiated in order to find the usage and relevance of theInformation and Communication Technologies(ICT) by the smallholder farmers of the Umzimvubu Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. A survey questionnaire was then developed to collect the relevant data from randomly selected six villages of Umzimvubu Local Municipality targeting 138 respondents. The questionnaires structure employed both closed and open-ended questions that were administered using a face to face interview, conducted on the sample population in each village. There seems to be a correlation between ICT usage and the economies of scale in agricultural development, where smallholder farmers tend to use less of highly modernized ICT, while commercial large scale farmers use more of the modernized ICT. This disparity amongst farmers is exacerbated in many areas by the differing support systems employed by the public extension services.

    2. South African government palliative funds for agriculture amid Covid-19: challenges of implementation and suggestions for improvements

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Popoola, O. O (author) and Yusuf, S. F. G (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2021-12-09
    Published:
    South Africa: South African Society for Agricultural Extension
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12729
    Journal Title:
    South African Journal of Agricultural Extension
    Journal Title Details:
    Vol. 49, N. 3
    Notes:
    15 pages, The novel Corona virus pandemic has been extremely overwhelming at all levels causing massive economic setbacks for many countries including South Africa. The country witnessed an unprecedented scaling-down of its national economic activities, which called for an emergency response from the government. Several Covid-19 relief schemes were instituted by the government to ensure that farms of all sizes would survive. A support fund of R1.2 billion was allocated to the agriculture and food sector through the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD). The fund was primarily meant to assist financially distressed small-scale farmers to ensure continued production and food security for the country. This study collated the conditions for financial Covid-19 stimulus support required from smallholders and analysed several factors that prevented some members of this vulnerable group from benefitting from the relief funds. These factors include complexities associated with satisfactorily categorizing smallholder producers, productivity, marketing and policy challenges, glitches in formalising smallholder producer operations, the farm-business record keeping pitfall, and the exclusion of subsistent producers. The paper suggests some possible corrective measures that could allow for more inclusive support to these categories of farmers; some of which includes a simple but robust financial traceability system for the farmers, and a need to continue to push for the completion of national registration process of smallholder producers.