Abstract:
Understanding the drivers of farmers’ challenges and adoption of sustainable agricultural
practices (SAPs) is crucial for the sustainable development of the small-scale urban pig
enterprise in sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 160 structured questionnaires were individually administered to determine factors driving small-scale farmers’ challenges and adoption of SAPs in the Cape Metropole District, South Africa. Key challenges reported by
the farmers were piglet mortality (88% of respondents), limited access to communal water
taps (42%), feed scarcity (36%), and shortage of pig housing material (30%). Marginal
effects from logistic regression revealed that farmers’ chances to experience key challenges were high (P≤0.05) among African traditional religion believers, exotic pig breed
owners, single source income earners and young farmers. Key SAPs adopted by farmers
included restricted feeding (78% of respondents), controlled mating (70%), biosecurity
(50%) and record keeping (50%). The probability of farmers’ failure to adopt key SAPs
was high among the less educated, young farmers and African traditional religion believers (P≤0.05). In conclusion, consideration of farmer-oriented factors that have been
associated with increasing the likelihood of experiencing challenges and non-adoption of
SAPs in development initiatives could enhance small-scale urban pig production in the
studied areas.
