Skills based constraints and complexities affecting small-scale-entrepreneurship: A case of communal cattle farmers in Vhembe District

• Main Author: Mavhungu Abel Mafukata
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ümit Hacıoğlu 2015-09-01
• Series: International Journal of Research In Business and Social Science
• Subjects: Agri-business; Agricultural productivity; Entrepreneur farmer; Formal school education. Socio-demographic
• Online Access: http://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs/article/view/434

<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.35cm; line-height: 0.18cm;" lang="en-US" align="center"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><em>This paper investigates constraints and complexities affecting entrepreneurial and Agri-business small-scale farming success and sustainability in the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, South Africa. The respondent entrepreneur farmers were purposively selected (n=55) amongst 183 other farmers in the district for primary data collection through a semi-structured cross-language (Tshivenda) questionnaire. Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) also formed part of data collection instruments. The results of this paper revealed that the entrepreneur farmers’ formal school educational levels and basic literacy skills in addition; subtraction; multiplication and division were reasonably higher while technological skills in farm risk management and production, and managerial competence in business financial skills; budgeting and marketing were low. Government sponsored extension service could be employed to improve some of these deficient skills through skills training amongst the entrepreneur farmers. Since the study area is in the proximity of the University of Venda and Madzivhandila Agricultural Colleges, these institutions could be enlisted to provide skills training to the entrepreneur farmers. </em></span></p>