This paper published in the 56th Annual Conference of The Agriculture Economics Association of South Africa, describes the opportunities of innovation bringed by the new global cannabis marketing, especially in Lesotho and aims to fill the gap of focused social scientific research on the potential of cannabis cultivation to promote inclusive growth creating conditions of improved social justice and economic emancipation

Within the context of the European-funded JOLISAA FP7 project (JOint Learning in Innovation Systems in African Agriculture), several agricultural innovation experiences focused on smallholders were assessed in Benin, Kenya and South Africa. Fifty-six cases were characterised through review of grey literature and interviews with resource persons according to a common analytical framework inspired by the innovation systems perspective. Of these, 13 were assessed in greater depth through semistructured interviews, focus-group discussions and multistakeholder workshops.

The paper specifically proposes a framework to detect and quantify non-linear consequences in response to progressively deteriorating chain fragility factors. The paper’s approach is a novel alternative to the traditional value chain ‘risk assessment’.

This paper examines the determinants of participation in an outsourced extension programs and its impact of smallholder farmers' net farm income in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to obtain cross-sectional farm-level data from a sample of 300 farm households, using a structured questionnaire for the interview. The determinants and impacts of participation were estimated using the propensity score matching (PSM) to account for sample selection bias.

The objective of the study was to outline the determinants of market awareness and participation in the Kaonafatso ya Dikgomo (KyD) scheme in South Africa. The study utilised a cross-sectional survey of a randomly selected sample of 116 KyD farmers in KwaZulu-Natal Province. A Logit model was used to analyse the data. The results show that more farmers are aware of farmgate market channels, but however, they tended to utilise auction market channels.

This paper reviewed the potential of underutilized indigenous and traditional crops to bring about a transformative change to South Africa’s food system. South Africa has a dichotomous food system, characterized by a distinct, dominant agro-industrial, and, alternative, informal food system. This dichotomous food system has inadvertently undermined the development of smallholder producers.

Rice is one of the most important food crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change, variability, and economic globalization threatens to disrupt rice value chains across the subcontinent, undermining their important role in economic development, food security, and poverty reduction. This paper maps existing research on the vulnerability of rice value chains, synthesizes the evidence and the risks posed by climate change and economic globalization, and discusses agriculture and rural development policies and their relevance for the vulnerability of rice value chains in sub-Saharan Africa.

With a large proportion of sub-Saharan African countries’ GDP still heavily reliant on agriculture, global trends in agri-food business are having an increasing impact on African countries. South Africa, a leader in agribusiness on the continent, has a well-established agri-food sector that is facing increasing pressure from various social and environmental sources. This paper uses interview data with corporate executives from South African food businesses to explore how they are adapting to the dual pressures of environmental change and globalisation.

The current study examined the extent of knowledge concerning agricultural innovation systems amongst researchers, extension agents, farmers, input dealers, and marketers, while determining their attitude towards collaborating with agricultural innovation systems. Through using a simple random sampling technique; researchers, extension agents, farmers, input dealers, and marketers were selected as the study population.

Innovation processes in rural contexts occur in systems that are diverse, coupled with complex challenges. Dealing with complex systems requires an understanding of the social dynamics of actor networks and innovation.This study attempted to provide insights on thecompositional dynamics of actor networks,and how they influenceinteractive learning and innovation among agro-processing enterprises in South Africa. The guiding research questions to help address the study objectives are:What are the structural characteristics of actor networks for innovation in rural contexts?