Promoting farm/non‐farm linkages for employment of the poor in South Africa: A research agenda focused on small‐scale farms and agroindustry

Abstract

This article presents a policy research agenda for the promotion of farm/non‐farm linkages in South Africa. Our premise is that promoting the participation of small farms and small agroindustrial businesses in these linkages will have a strong impact on employment and income for the poor. We argue that there is potential for growth in linkages. The first question of the policy research agenda concerns the current status of linkages, and we note the dearth of research on this. The second question concerns the constraints on and prospects for promoting linkages from the demand side, and the third question treats the same concerns from the supply side. The fourth question is rooted in the duality in South Africa's non‐farm and farm sectors, and asks whether, and how, small and large agroindustrial businesses and farms will compete or relate in ‘business linkages’ that can benefit intersectoral linkages. The final question concerns the impacts of and alternatives for policies and programmes to spur linkages.

Notes

Respectively, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of the North, and Associate Professor and Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University. We thank Carl Eicher, Kostas Stamoulis, and the two reviewers for Development Southern Africa. We are also grateful to ESAE/FAO for funding.