Factors Affecting Marketing of Vegetables among Small-Scale Farmers in Mahikeng Local Municipality, North West Province, South Africa

Agricultural produce from small-scale farmers is often lost after production due to so many marketing challenges which make it difficult for small-scale farmers to explore full market potentials and they also reduce incentives of participation in formal (commercial) or high-value markets. The main objective of the study was to identify and analyse factors affecting (constraints) marketing of vegetables among small-scale farmers. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and regression analysis. Results showed that prominent constraints of marketing vegetables among the small-scale farmers were: lack of access to credit, lack of access to storage facilities, lack of market information, lack of finance for farming, poorly developed village markets, poor producer prices, high perishability of produce, low patronage, inadequate access roads, small size of transport and high transportation costs. Variables that significantly influenced monthly net farm income were: gender (t = 3.913), farm size (t = 4.100), number of employees (t = 6.126), access to storage (t = -2.132), grading of products (t = 3.712) and access to extension services (t = 1.757). Recommendations suggested include: enabling accessibility through the development of better infrastructure in the form of storage facilities, roads for transportation and communication systems; and the formation of marketing cooperatives to overcome high transportation costs, small size of transport and individual small marketing output problems in order to attract and penetrate high value-markets. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p39