Smallholder vegetable farmers’ commercialization to enhance rural livelihoods in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa

This study aims at establishing how vegetables can be commercialized to improve rural livelihoods in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data from 120 multi-purposive selected smallholder vegetable farmers. Descriptive statistics, Household Commercialization Index (HCI) and Tobit model were used for analysis. The results indicated that 70% of the selected farmers derive their income mainly from vegetable sales. In addition, the present study found that the average household commercialization index was 47%. Furthermore, socioeconomic, environmental, and institutional factors were found to be the driving forces behind the commercialization of smallholder farmers in the study area. The study recommends that education training and workshops conducted by the government to strengthen farmers’ knowledge and entrepreneurship skills to improve commercialization and participation in markets must be held more often. The study further recommends that there must be an increase in advisory personnel availability to disseminate information and assist farmers in fighting pests and disease attacks.