Small enterprise development in rural Swaziland: current status and research needs

A research paper on small scale enterprise development in rural Swaziland, presented at the Fourth Annual Conference on Food Security In Southern Africa, 31 October- 3 November, 1988.There is increasing international concern over the shortfall in food production in Africa. However, there is another issue that has yet not been fully explored--the issue of access to food. A critical question is the role of rural small enterprises in generating rural employment and income as a means of increasing access to food. The tie between rural enterprise development and food production in Swaziland has been examined by Magagula (1980), de Vletter (1984), Carloni (1982), McCann (1981,) and Neocosmos (1985). The government of Swaziland is promoting small rural enterprises because of the realization that only a fraction of the annual additions to the labour force can be productivel^employed in urban areas and farming because of the large numbers of business that are owned by expatriates. This paper explores and describes existing small rural enterprises in Swaziland. The definition of a small rural enterprise usually includes capital levels, labour and employment levels, ratio of capital to labour, ownership structure, control and responsibility, and legality. Brown (1987) defines a small enterprise as an inseparable entity from the individual.United States Agency For International Development (USAID