The Impact of Soil Erosion on Agricultural Potential and Performance of Sheshegu Community Farmers in the Eastern Cape of South Africa

Soil erosion is one of the unresolved problems of rural agriculture. This study investigates the impact of soil erosion on the agricultural potential and performance of Sheshegu community farmers in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Structured interview scheduled was used to collect data from 50 respondents using simple random sampling. Findings revealed that most (62%) respondents are male, who are above 46 years old (68%). Most of whom (72%) had education above grade 7. Further, the majority of them (50.8%) depend on social grants as sources of income. Most respondents confirmed that erosion occurred naturally through heavy rainfall and persistent drought while human causes that facilitated erosion include farming activities, deforestation and indiscriminate bush burning that expose soil to impact of rain drop. Respondents affirmed that erosion contributed to poor health of livestocks due to lack of pasture grass to feed on, loss of grazing land and poor bush regrowth. It is recommended that awareness on the negative effect of human causes of erosion should be created while simple technologies on soil erosion control should be pushed to the farmers. Finally, edict on bush burning should be enforced to check indiscriminate bush burning. Â