Farmer-oriented predictors of smallholder urban pig farming challenges and adoption of sustainable management practices in the Cape Metropole, South Africa

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.