Abstract
South Africa’s post-apartheid economy continues to invest in agricultural development but poverty remains endemic among households with agriculture as their main source of livelihood. There are now doubts that agriculture is the dominant income-generating activity. This chapter analyses the potential livelihoods in rural areas of South Africa. Using household and community level data, the chapter develops simultaneous equations to estimate the determinants of both poverty and income from activities practised in the study area. It is expected that these would enable policymakers to identify the weak links in rural poverty reduction efforts and determine whether agriculture should remain a priority for government investment. Despite low returns per capita, own agriculture and wage employment were shown to be the main sources of income and strongly influenced by level of education, labour availability, social capital, physical capital and geographical location. To improve rural income and reduce poverty, urgent improvements in education, capital resources, infrastructure and communication are necessary.
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Ndhleve, S., Obi, A. (2011). Determinants of household activity choice, rural income strategies and diversification. In: Obi, A. (eds) Institutional constraints to small farmer development in Southern Africa. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-704-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-704-2_3
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