AgEcon Search Collection: Volume 44, Issue 1, March 2005

Attitudes and acceptance of South African urban consumers towards genetically modified white maize

Title: Attitudes and acceptance of South African urban consumers towards genetically modified white maize

Authors: Vermeulen, H.; Kirsten, J.F.; Doyer, T.O.; Schonfeldt, H.C.

Abstract: The introduction of genetically modified (GM) food products to food markets around the world, has led to considerable controversy. In many cases consumer attitudes and perceptions of GM food products were revealed as fears, concern for, and avoidance of the new technology. The importance of GM foods in South Africa is increasing, even though the GM Food debate lags behind many other (often more developed) parts of the world. This paper investigates the knowledge, attitudes and acceptance of urban South African white-grain maize consumers regarding GM maize. Conjoint- and cluster analysis were used to develop clusters/market segments among the urban consumers of white maize. A range of additional questions was used to develop profiles of the identified market segments. These aspects covered demographics, GM knowledge aspects as well as GM attitude aspects. Four distinct clusters/market segments were identified with specific characteristics: "Anti-GM, Brand aware" cluster (35% of valid responses), "Brand unaware, Farmer sympathetic" cluster (20%), "GM consumer benefit, Brand aware" cluster (25%) and the "Brand aware, Pro-GM" cluster (20%). The most significant differences between the clusters were based on the consumers' attitudes towards GM food products.

South African Agricultural Policy 1994 to 2004: Some reflections

Title: South African Agricultural Policy 1994 to 2004: Some reflections

Authors: Viljoen, M.F.

Abstract: Time constraints limits this paper to giving a brief overview of a selection of only the most important events on the policy front. The aim is to set the stage for the conference by giving a synoptic overview of South African agricultural policy between 1994 and 2004. To put the policy development in historical and developmental perspective, relevant pre-1994 realities will be mentioned first. After outlining the policy development between 1994 and 2004, the presentation concludes with some 2004 realities and a perspective on the relevance of agricultural economics as a discipline.

Wages and wage elasticities for wine and table grapes in South Africa

Title: Wages and wage elasticities for wine and table grapes in South Africa

Authors: Conradie, B.

Abstract: A survey of 190 wine and table grape farmers in the Western Cape puts the average wage for farm labour at R928 per month in 2003 and R1123 per month in 2004. Output per worker has doubled since 1983. On farms with grape harvesters, labour is 30 per cent more productive (48 ton/worker) than on farms where wine grapes are picked by hand (37 ton/worker). At 9.75 tons per worker, table grapes are four times as labour-intensive as wine grapes. Resident men dominate the workforce on wine farms, while the resident female workforce is 20 per cent larger than the resident male workforce on table grape farms. Seasonal workers contribute a third of labour in table grapes, and brokers less than ten per cent in either case. In a single-equation short-run Hicksian demand function, wage, output, capital levels and mechanisation intensities are highly significant determinants of employment. Higher wages decrease employment and larger output increases employment. More mechanisation, measured by the number of tractors used to produce a ton of fruit, raises labour intensity too. Grape harvesters could not be shown to reduce jobs. The ten per cent rise in the minimum wage planned for March 2005 could reduce employment by 3.3 per cent in the wine industry and 5.9 per cent in the table grape industry, but it is more likely that the wage increase will be offset against fewer benefits. The average expected impact is about the same as for all agriculture and manufacturing as a whole.

Agricultural transformation: Lessons from experience

Title: Agricultural transformation: Lessons from experience

Authors: Swinnen, J.F.M.

Abstract: It is now fifteen years ago that the Berlin Wall fell, the start of a vast set of changes throughout the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Reforms in the Communist world had started earlier further east: first in China in the late 1970s and in Vietnam in the mid 1980s. The changes affected society in a multitude of ways. They affected the way the political and economic system operated but also the social organization of society, the psychology of the people living in the countries, and the culture of day-to-day life. In this essay I focus on how these changes affected the rural economy and the agricultural and food sector. I will discuss developments and performances of the countries during transition, the causes behind them, and the policy lessons they imply. My analysis relies heavily on work I have done with various co-authors on these issues and I refer to these publications for details on some of the issues and arguments which I will forward here somewhat too brief to do justice to their complexity. For more detailed arguments and analyses I refer in particular to Rozelle and Swinnen (2004) and Macours and Swinnen (2000, 2002).

An empirical analysis of factors affecting the productivity of livestock in southern Botswana

Title: An empirical analysis of factors affecting the productivity of livestock in southern Botswana

Authors: Mahabile, M.; Lyne, M.C.; Panin, A.

Abstract: This study attempts to identify factors responsible for differences in the productivity of cattle managed by private and communal livestock farmers in the southern region of Botswana during 1999/2000. Sample survey data are used to estimate the parameters of a block recursive regression model. Some of the equations postulated in the model are estimated with two-stage least squares (2SLS) to account for likely correlation between endogenous explanatory variables and the error term. The results show that (a) respondents with secure land tenure (private farms) and larger herds use more agricultural credit than do those who rely on open access communal grazing to raise cattle; (b) secure tenure and higher levels of liquidity from long-term credit and off-farm wage remittances promote investment in fixed improvements to land; (c) liquidity from short-term credit and wage remittances supports expenditure on operating inputs; and (d) herd productivity increases with greater investment in operating inputs and fixed improvements, and is therefore positively (but indirectly) influenced by secure land tenure. It can be inferred that government should (a) uphold private property rights to land where they already exist; (b) privatise open access grazing to individual owner-operators where this is politically, socially and economically feasible; and (c) where privatisation to individuals is not feasible, government should encourage users to convert the grazing into common property by subsidising the transaction costs of defining user groups and the boundaries of their resources, and of negotiating and enforcing rules limiting individual use of common property. This first-step in a gradual shift towards private property might be followed by a conversion of user-groups into non-user groups organised along the lines of investor-owned firms where members exchange use rights for benefits rights.

Agricultural technology, productivity and employment: Policies for poverty reduction

Title: Agricultural technology, productivity and employment: Policies for poverty reduction

Authors: Thirtle, C.; Piesse, J.; Gouse, M.

Abstract: This paper begins by arguing that agricultural economics has an important contribution to make to the economic transition of the new democratic South Africa. Policies are required to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality, but does the work of agricultural economists provide the policy makers with the information necessary to make the correct choices? In this context, we update our recent work on technology, efficiency and productivity in South African agriculture, for both the commercial and smallholder sub-sectors. For the commercial sector, this means extending the total factor productivity index and estimates of the demand for labour. For the smallholder sector, there are new results on the impacts of GM cotton and white maize on output and employment. However, this piecemeal approach treats the two sectors as entirely separate, when they are actually interdependent. Thus, a Ricardian model of dualistic agriculture is used to explain the historical development of dualism in agriculture, especially how the native agriculturalists were impoverished by the colonists. Then this model is adapted to resemble the Harris-Todaro model of urban unemployment is order to represent the present dual agricultural sector. This allows the current policy options to be compared, although real data is needed to estimate the relationships and so the full analysis remains incomplete.

Possible causes of poverty within a group of land reform beneficiaries in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal: Analysis and policy recommendations

Title: Possible causes of poverty within a group of land reform beneficiaries in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal: Analysis and policy recommendations

Authors: Shinns, L.H.; Lyne, M.C.

Abstract: This study investigates possible causes of poverty afflicting a community of land reform beneficiaries in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. The 38 beneficiary households had previously been clustered into four groups displaying different symptoms of poverty. Linear Discriminant Analysis was used first to distinguish households that were relatively income and asset "rich" from those that were relatively income and asset "poor", and second to distinguish households that were relatively income poor but "asset rich" from those relatively asset poor but "income rich". In the first analysis it was found that "rich" households could be distinguished from "poor" households using just two indicator variables; gender of the household head and family size. Larger, female-headed households have lower income and wealth per adult equivalent. In the second analysis, it was found that the "asset rich" had more human capital whereas the "income rich" owned vehicles and had fewer dependants per worker. Policy recommendations therefore point to education and vocational training - especially for women, better access to transport, jobs and banking facilities (to mobilise savings) in the long run, and improved and better targeting of social welfare grants for the chronically poor in the short run. These interventions are also expected to increase the demand for family planning and contraception, which in turn helps to reduce family sizes and the premature loss of breadwinners.

General equilibrium modelling in South Africa: What the future holds

Title: General equilibrium modelling in South Africa: What the future holds

Authors: McDonald, S.; Punt, C.

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the main research contributions of the past decade using general equilibrium models to analyse agricultural issues in South Africa. The methodological developments since the change to democracy ten years ago are viewed in the context of developments in this area of research carried out internationally. It will be shown in this paper that the modelling and computing techniques have vastly improved during the past decade, both in an ongoing attempt to refine existing models, and in an attempt to extend the modelling framework to make provision for issues that cannot be sufficiently captured in the standard comparative static models. These extensions include dynamic modelling, global modelling, environmental modelling and micro simulation. The paper highlights the non-trivial data requirements of this type of modelling. The national statistical agency, Statistics South Africa, supports general equilibrium modellers by their development of input-output tables, social accounting matrices and, more recently, supply and use tables. This decade has therefore witnessed an improvement in the data for the construction of national level social accounting matrices. Requirements for provincial level data have however not been met sufficiently, posing huge challenges for provincial and regional modelling. The lack of primary data has however stimulated development of advanced data estimation techniques that can be applied to overcome this data challenge. Application of general equilibrium techniques to analyse agricultural issues in South Africa still remains limited and substantial support and training of researcher is still needed to expand domestic capacity in this field of research.