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Wheat is South Africa's second most important grain crop and is produced in winter rainfall, summer rainfall, and irrigation regions. Despite being a net importer of wheat, the country has stringent wheat quality requirements as per the Agricultural Products Act (Act No. 119 of 1990). This paper investigates the effects of the quality requirements in different regions and the wheat industry as whole. Forward regression and benefit-cost analysis were applied to data on wheat area planted, seed adoption rates, prices, and cultivar performance from 1999 to 2016. A total of 31 527 observations from winter, summer and irrigation regions were used, each accounting for 4563, 8824 and 18 140 cases respectively. Forty-nine cultivars were used for trials during this period. Results show that stringent quality requirements have resulted in losses of approximately 39 000 tons from 1999 to 2016. The benefits of pursuing the prevailing quality standards amounted to R400 million while the costs amounted to R514 million, far exceeding the benefits. The resulting benefit-cost ratio was 0.78, implying that for every rand invested in breeding for quality alone, 22 cents is lost. It can be concluded that government intervention through quality standards has led to more losses than gains. In addition, investments made towards quality improvement alone have not been recovered due to the high standards. There are therefore cogent reasons to consider relaxing the quality standards to allow for higher wheat outputs, thus unlocking growth in local wheat production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although South Africans are not predominantly wine drinkers, the industry is exploring ways to develop the local market to balance exports. The black middle class, increasingly referred to as the 'Black Diamonds' are the most powerful marketing trend during the last 10 years, as they have emerged as the strongest buying influence in the economy, and making inroads in understanding this market presents a good opportunity. The data used in this paper was collected from an integration of a consumer behaviour survey; as well as personal interviews and focus group discussions. The paper asserts that the key factors influencing the South African consumers' behaviour are age, gender, income, race and wine drinking history. The paper also asserts that, not only is the black middle class different from the white middle class, but that different segments exist within the 'Black Diamonds'. The industry should particularly focus on marketing to women and the 'Start-me-up' age group, as there is limited consumer knowledge about wines, but a high willingness to experiment. The paper also suggests various new brand communication platforms that can be explored to reach this market as well as competition between industry stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livelihood strategies used by households and individuals in rural communities are shaped by human, natural, financial, social and physical capital resources that can be accessed. The ability to diversify livelihoods depends on asset portfolios and the economic shocks that rural households face. The main objective of this paper is to improve understanding of rural livelihood challenges in south-east Zimbabwe and how households in this area diversify livelihoods to cope with these challenges. A cluster analysis of 200 households surveyed in 2008 in the Chiredzi district identified five distinct livelihood strategies: (1) subsistence smallholders/ unskilled workers; (2) subsistence smallholders/nontimber forestry products (NTFPs) harvesters; (3) crop production and NTFPs extraction integrators; (4) commercial smallholders with regular off-farm employment; and (5) specialised commercial livestock producers. Multinomial logit model results showed that the level of education of the household head, value of physical assets, cattle numbers and income, remittances, NTFP income and economic shocks were the main determinants of these livelihood choices. There is also some evidence that those households that were statistically significantly affected by HIV/AIDS shock practised distresspush diversification by harvesting NTFPs. These results suggest that policymakers need to advise rural households on how to improve their risk management capacities, and move from geographically untargeted investments in livelihood assets to a more integrated approach adapted to the asset bases of individual households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dualistic nature of the South African economy manifests itself to a large extent in the agricultural sector, where ownership and access to land was previously reserved and is still mainly controlled by white farmers. This has contributed to the huge disparities in the income levels of black and white agricultural households. In this paper two South African household surveys are used to analyse agricultural inequality using various decomposition techniques. It is found that inequalities within agriculture are higher and more pronounced along racial lines than inequalities among non-agricultural households. Agricultural inequalities also differ structurally from those in the rest of society and are explained largely by differences in the ownership of income-generating assets, and less so by racial wage inequalities. Furthermore, an analysis of agricultural poverty reveals extremely high poverty rates and meagre incomes among black subsistence and small-scale farmer households. These results have important implications for the type of transformation required in the South African agricultural sector, adding weight to the notion that commercialisation is crucial if agriculture is to contribute meaningfully to poverty reduction among the rural black community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Du Toit & Ally's (2003) results on the casualisation of farm work in the Western Cape confirmed the worst fears of sociologists: Globalisation and/or labour laws increased casualisation in agriculture. New labour data and a study conducted in 1976 allow one to revisit the casualisation result for the table grape industry of the Hex River Valley. This paper resolves imprecise definitions of regular versus permanent status, and of casual versus seasonal status. It also examines casualisation and job shedding. Results show a decrease in the share of seasonal work and no change in the casual component of seasonal work. The job status of most farm women in the Valley improved as a result of legislative changes implemented since 1994. Outsourcing is present but insignificant at this point. On the whole data for the table grape industry of the Hex River Valley does not support the hypothesis that globalisation and labour market reform caused dramatic increases in casualisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]