Problem‐solving strategies for small‐scale emerging commercial mango farmers in Venda

Abstract

This article describes the prevailing farming system of emerging small‐scale commercial mango farmers in the Venda region of the Northern Province of South Africa. Analyses based on intensive group discussions with farmers and prioritisation of their problems using a ‘problem tree/objective tree'framework, as well as comparisons with adjacent commercial mango farmers, enabled the development of operational support strategies. This study followed a new (for South Africa) participative approach. The first step of the Objective Oriented Intervention Planning (OOIP) approach to Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) is a problem tree; the next is to convert the problem tree into an objective tree in order to identify alternative strategies for alleviating constraints and problems. These are then summarised in the LFA matrix. This methodology is described here.

Notes

The authors wish to acknowledge R Madula, E Khohorombi and the Merensky Foundation for their help during the study.

Respectively, Assistant, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Ghent,Belgium; Director: School of Rural and Agricultural Development, University of Pretoria; Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Ghent, Belgium;Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Ghent and University of Antwerp, Belgium.