RELEVANT
opportunities are lacking, the technologies still allow onlymarginal
improvement.
Weneed to recognise that productivity in rural farmingcommunities
cannot be achieved by technological advances alone. Producers in
rural communitiesneed tobepurposefully supported togainaccess
toproviders of inputs and tobe incorporated into value chains.
Innovation platforms (IP’s) are one approach which seeks to
address the vast gaps between often remote farming communities
and institutions in general. IP’s can be defined as combinations of
selected key actors committed to collectively link producers to the
complete agricultural value chain.
Research shows that IP-served communities have more linkages
with external actors and also achievedmore poverty reduction than
communities relying on traditional stand-alone support systems
(
Photo 3
).
The lack of institutional arrangements and capacity is a serious
weaknessexperiencedwithmost communitydevelopment projects.
In order to address this weakness, training on IP’s was one of the
priorities of the training programme mentioned earlier. Altogether
43 extension officers, based at farming communities, were trained
to enable them to guide communitymembers in the establishment
of suchplatforms.
Challenges ahead
Community projects have their own complex nature with a diverse
rangeof challenges such as:
Thedepletionof soil nutrients.
Inadequate mechanisation systems despite efforts by
government to improve the situation.
Poor knowledge regardingproductionpractices andmarkets.
Political interference and instability in the communities/group
factions.
Lack of functional organisational structures.
Sustainable intensification of agriculture in rural farming communi-
ties will require more than technological innovation. Much more
needs to be done to bring about institutional change
and establish effective linkages to agri-business
and markets in order to ensure the development of
thriving rural communities.
ARC-GCI:
Contributing to rural growth
3:Valueadding farmer groupat PulengnearMar-
bleHall – doing grading at their own peanut but-
ter processingplant. Theproduct –KhonoKhono
peanut butter.
SAGrain/
Sasol Nitrophoto competition
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