Abstract:
Enormous Literature indicates that agriculture remains a source of livelihood for about 86%
of rural people and generates job opportunities for approximately 1.3 billion small-scale farmers and
landless workers. Over the past couple of years, the South African government has been offering
varied support to households that are engaged in small-scale farming to improve their livelihoods,
income and food security. Although the various rounds of the General Households Survey (GHS)
gathered information on the type of agricultural support received by the farmers about their food
production, agricultural income and food security status, there is still limited pragmatic evidence
on the extent to which programme is yielding the intended results. The main aim of the study
was to use GHS data spanning the period 2013 to 2016 to assess how government agricultural
development support influences the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in South Africa. Using both
descriptive analyses with Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Logistics estimations, the result of the
study indicates that the proportion of households who have access to the agricultural development
support have decreased marginally by two percent from 16% in 2013 to 14% in 2016. The study
also reveals that agriculture development assistance given by the South African government is
effective in reducing food insecurity, improving agricultural production and income of the beneficiary
small-scale farmers. Following the observed marked gender, racial and geographical differences
in households’ access to the agricultural development support, the Ministry of Agriculture and its
allied ministries and departments responsible for the implementation of the agricultural development
support programmes must streamline policies to account for the lack of support to farmers in
general. Addressing such differences is necessary to ensure that the programme achieves its intended
overall objectives.
