Invasive plants – friends or foes? Contribution of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) to livelihoods in Makana Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Figures & data

Table 1: Socioeconomic characteristics of prickly pear traders and their households (n = 36)

Variable	Values*
Distribution of trader ages (years)	Proportion of traders (%)
<30	6
31–40	22
41–50	47
51–60	8
>60	17
Position of trader in household	Proportion of traders (%)
Head	47
Wife	25
Dependent single	6
Child	22
Highest education levels of trader	Proportion of traders (%)
None	8
Primary school (Grades 1–7)	67
Secondary school (Grades 8–10)	25
Household composition	Number of individuals (mean ± SE)
Average household size	4.9 ± 0.4
Number of adults	2.5 ± 0.2
Number of children	2.3 ± 0.3
Head of household	Proportion of traders (%)
Married male	55
Single female	42
Divorced male	3
Sources of income within trader's household	Proportion of traders (%)
At least one job	33
At least one pension	47
At least one child grant	47
At least one disability grant	11
No regular source of income	33
Household income class	Proportion of traders (%)
<R500 per month	8
R500–R1 000 per month	39
R1000–R2 000 per month	53
Occupation prior to commencing prickly pear trade	Proportion of traders (%)
Unemployed	31
Formal job	52
Self employed/trading	14
Attending school	3
*Some of the percentages in this table are not mutually exclusive and therefore add up to more than 100%.

Table 2: Differences in collection and selling characteristics of traders selling in town and those selling alongside the road (mean ± SE)

Location	Hours spent selling per day (hours)	Duration of collecting trip (hours)	Frequency of collection per week (days)	Quantity of fruit collected (litres)
Roadside
Collect on selling days	7 ± 0.5	2 ± 0.3	4 ± 1.0	24 ± 4
Collect on alternate days to selling	7 ± 0.6	9 ± 0.9	1 ± 0.2	76 ± 9
Town
Collect on selling days	4 ± 0.9	7 ± 0.7	5 ± 0.8	29 ± 3
Collect on alternate days to selling	5 ± 0.4	7 ± 0.4	3 ± 0.1	91 ± 8

Table 3: Mean estimated gross and net incomes of traders and labour time spent trading prickly pear (mean ± SE)

Variable	Values
Incomes
Number of weeks spent selling per trader	9.7 ± 3.3
Gross income (R) per season per trader	1 469 ± 153
Costs (R) per season (transport, lunch, bags) per trader	675 ± 103
Net cash income (R) per season per trader	794 ± 83
Labour inputs per season per trader (hours)
Fruit collection	182 ± 27
Selling fruit	224 ± 19

Figure 1: Distribution of net seasonal incomes (rands) earned by individual traders over the entire selling season

Figure 2: Size-class structure of populations of Opuntia ficus-indica at three harvesting sites within Makana Municipality