Livelihood assets and institutions for smallholder irrigation farmer market access in Limpopo, South Africa

Abstract

Despite having access to irrigation water, many smallholder irrigation farmers in rural South Africa remain subsistence-oriented, with little market participation. Their tangible and intangible assets influence production and market access. Largely qualitative data collected in rural Limpopo Province show that the farmers’ tangible assets supported production but in some instances restricted them from producing efficiently. Likewise, their intangible assets mostly limited their capacity to produce efficiently, to find markets or to organize themselves. These farmers’ tangible assets need to be upgraded and their intangible assets need strengthening to increase production capacity and marketing efficiency.

Keywords:

• Smallholder irrigation schemes
• market access
• tangible assets
• intangible assets
• capacity development

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers who reviewed our paper for their helpful comments and D. M. Newmarch, who edited our paper.