Milk production potential of South African Boer and Nguni goats

(South African J of Animal Science, 2000, 30, Supplement 1: 76-77

Antimicrobial activities of essential oils from Southern Africa against selected bacterial and fungal organisms

In the present study, essential oils from four plants including Melissa officinalis, Mentha piperita,  Pelargonium graveolens and Leucosidea sericea, traditionally used to treat infectious diseases were  tested for antimicrobial activity against seven Gram-positive bacteria, eight Gram-negative bacteria and six yeast species (Candida spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans) using the agar diffusion method. The  minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of the oils were determined by the microdilution technique. The killing kinetics of the oils was further evaluated against specific bacterial and fungal organisms. Both  antifungal and antibacterial activities were observed from the essential oil of P. graveolens and M.  peripeta against bacterial and fungal strains tested in the present study with the MIC values ranging from 0.95 to 7.5 mg/ml against the bacterial isolates and 0.24 to 7.50 mg/ml 'against the fungal isolates. The oils of P. graveolens were fungicidal to all the yeast isolates tested in the present study with minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values ranging from 0.12 to 7.50 mg/ml while the essential oil from M. piperita was fungicidal to one of the six yeast isolates tested with the smallest MFC of 0.48 mg/ml against Candida tropicalis. Essential oils from P. graveolens were able to kill 90% of the P. aeruginosa cells within three hours. The present study has revealed the antimicrobial activity of P. graveolens and M. piperita and indicated that essential oils are promising sources of natural products with potential antimicrobial activity. These results will guide the selection of some plant species for further pharmacological and phytochemical analysis. These results also support the use of essential oils to treat microbial infections and could be used as pharmaceuticals as well as preservatives in the food industry.Key words: Medicinal plants, essential oils, antibacterial activity, antifungal activity, time-kill activity

Entrepreneurship framework for the economic commercialisation of smallholder farming in South Africa

The agricultural sector in South Africa could be categorized into two main farming sub-groupings, that is commercial farming [a farming sector that is perceived as sophisticated with advanced technologies and systems, who owns vast hectares of land (87% of agricultural land)] and smallholder farming which are perceived to have limited or little access to land (13% of agricultural land) with low technological systems. The latter farming sector has limited entrepreneurial performance, obscured entrepreneurial leadership, minimal competitive advantage and commercialization because of historical marginalization. Consequently, the sector was often operated to achieve household livelihood relative to economic gains. Through a variety of the government interventions (such as Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD), Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP), Micro Agricultural Financial Institutions of South Africa (MAFISA) Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS), Agricultural Black Economic Empowerment (Agri-BEE), Operation Phakhisa, etc., the South African government sought to transform this sector to be economically viable such that it could be instrumental in reducing unemployment, poverty, and inequality by increasing their entrepreneurship in poverty-stricken rural areas. v Increasing their entrepreneurial performance implies that these farmers could achieve financial and non-financial benefits by increasing their market shares, profitability, sales growth and return on investment, entrepreneurial information, knowledge, and capacity. The global experience seems to suggest that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) positively impact the economic growth and competitiveness of different countries because of their flexibility and adaptability to market changes. SMEs have moreover been credited with their impact on employment and knowledge sharing. Although smallholder farming enterprises in South Africa fall within the categories of SMEs, their contribution to employment creation has been limited due to their lack of intellectual and social capital, entrepreneurship, commercialization, and competitiveness. An important limitation of smallholder competitiveness has been identified from their limited information regarding their households and production systems. To address the afore-said challenges, a comprehensive study that sought to develop the entrepreneurship framework for the economic commercialization of smallholder farming in South Africa was conducted. The study involved two phases. During phase one, secondary research investigating theories of smallholder farming enterprises, entrepreneurship, leadership, and commercialization was investigated. Participatory research involving focus group discussions and personal interviews with farmers was used. Phase two comprised of government officials and non-governmental institutions. The sample size was determined based on the cluster randomized sampling techniques, resulting in 1115 participants. The procedure used to identify the study participants was possible because of the cooperation with the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) and Provincial Departments of Agriculture (PDAs). Only six provinces formed part of the study. The study results were presented in terms of the research objectives in subsequent chapters. The results of the study that sought to determine the entrepreneurial performance of the smallholder farming sector revealed that for smallholder farming (that has failed to commercialize its production for several decades) to evolve into a high-performance sub-sector will require industrial knowledge, human relations, and managerial skills to be economically viable. vi Additional factors that could affect the entrepreneurial competitiveness of the smallholder farming sector in contemporary South Africa are a unique product and service features, the price value of the products, and consumer experience significantly influencing the entrepreneurial competitiveness of this sector. The study established strong evidence of a relationship between social capital and identified factors such as credibility, farming culture, market agency, expertise, leadership readiness, and creativity. The factors that affect entrepreneurial leadership in the smallholder farming sector in South Africa, such as growth, mentorship, government support, and effective communication, were found to affect the entrepreneurial leadership of smallholder farming significantly. Lastly, the results of the study, which aimed at developing a commercialization model for the smallholder farming sector of South Africa, showed that entrepreneurial leadership, social capital, and competitive advantage play an essential role in ensuring the enterprise performance of smallholder farming which in turn mediate for commercialization of the enterprises in this sector. The overall results of the current study have practical implications for the present and future smallholder farming sector in South Africa. Firstly, the study identified crucial factors that could affect entrepreneurial performance, competitiveness, social capital, leadership, and commercialization. Secondly, the study also contributed to an entrepreneurship framework for the commercialization of this sector. The framework proposed has the potential to transform this sector to be economically viable so that it can contribute to reducing the socio-economic challenges.Graduate School of Business Leadershi

Factors affecting extension workers in their rendering of effective service to pre and post-settled farmers in government initiated and supported farming small, micro and medium enterprises

Small, micro and medium entrepreneurs play an important role in economic growth and poverty alleviation across the globe. To this effect, the South African government has instituted a policy to encourage the formation, promotion and support of small, micro and medium enterprises (SMME’s). In particular, the Department of Agriculture and Forestry(DAF) and Rural Development and Land Affairs (DRDLA), through land acquisition, restitution and other agrarian development systems, initiates and supports agriculturally based SMME’s with the objective of achieving sustainable livelihoods for the poor and commonages. However, an intensive investigation using desktop, government reports, research articles and case studies on the pre and post-settlement delivery of services by extension officers, revealed that support is grossly inadequate in terms of funding, training, technical advice, mentoring, monitoring and evaluation. This is also exacerbated by the extension workers’ lack of capacity and specialization in particular fields, such as production, marketing and management to adequately service the land reform programs. It is therefore recommended that extension workers be capacitated on specialisation, production, management, mentoring, monitoring and evaluation in order for them to deliver qualityservices that will contribute to in making these SMME’s sustainable

The chemical composition and biological activities of essential oil from the fresh leaves of Schinus terebinthifolius from Zimbabwe

In the present study, the essential oil from the fresh leaves of Schinus terebinthifolius was extracted using the hydrodistillation method. The oil yield obtained was 0.65%. Gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis of the essential oil showed that the major constituents of the essential oil were sabinene, -pinene, -phellandrene, -pinene, terpinene-4-ol, trans--ocimene and myrcene. Using the hole-plate diffusion testing method, the essential oil exhibited potent antibacterial activity against Yersinia enterocolitica, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsielia pneumoniae and Bacillus subtilis with at least 58% inhibitioncompared to the positive control. The mycelium growth inhibition method was used for anti-fungal testing. The essential oil exhibited activity against Aspergillus flavus with 58% inhibition, Candida albicans with 49.8% inhibition and Aspergillus niger with 48.7% inhibition. The -carotene, acetone and linoleic acid method was used to assess the antioxidant activity of the essential oil. The essential oil showed anti-oxidant activity of 13.1 mm mean zone of colour retention representing 72.7% activitycompared to the positive control (ascorbic acid). This is the first study on S. terebinthifolius collected from sub-saharan Africa indicating the presence of trans--ocimene in the essential oil and its strong antibacterial activity against Y. enterocolitica and P. aeruginosa as well as moderate antifungalactivities of the plant

Preferences for index-based crop insurance in South Africa

The main reason cited for the low participation rate in indexed insurance in Africa is the lack of farmers’ involvement in the initial conception. The main aim of this article was, therefore, to design an improved participatory methodology that would help farmers in South Africa gather information on the value they place in new crop insurance initiatives based on weather indices. The main objective of this study was to determine their willingness to pay (WTP) crop insurance in the Eastern Cape. The study adopted a cross-sectional design, and the respondents were selected by using a probability sampling procedure. A sample of 150 respondents was selected. The results from descriptive statistics showed that 62% of the smallholder irrigation scheme farmers were between 52 and above years of age, male and female: 87% and 13%, respectively. The results from the probit model revealed that out of nine variables included in the model, only four namely, logAge square, gender, marital status and age were significantly influencing the WTP index-based crop insurance at 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively. However, age was found to reduce the chances of participating in crop-based insurance. A large proportion of those who were willing to pay insurance had not previously experienced losses because of natural hazards. Therefore, it recommended that the government should use existing extension officers to educate the farmers and promote the importance and benefits of insurance products. Contribution: The results are expected to contribute to the local government to improve disaster resilience through strengthening regional financial funding

Analysis of a gum from the exudates of Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Am

Only little research is currently underway on gums from African plants, yet Africa imports a lot of gums for pharmaceutical and food industries. This study was aimed to investigate the rheological properties, and the moisture and ash contents of the isolated gum resins from Dichrostachys cinerea. The gum from this plant exhibited low shear stress even at high concentrations of the gum. The moisture content obtained was 15.8 ± 0.3%, which was rather too high and would only be suitable for formulations that need to remain moisturized. The gum from this plant had little ash content (2.59 ± 0.01%). The gum from D. cinerea exhibited low shear stress at high concentrations, while the gum was profoundly affected by the addition of ions. In conclusion, this gum has potential as a product for the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries. Further studies are needed to identify the phytoconstituents in the gum as well as toxicity studies.Key words: Gum, exudates, Dichrostachys cinerea, rheology, moisture

Aphrodisiac properties of some Zimbabwean medicinal plants formulations

The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of formulations composed of Mondia whitei, Ekebergia capansis, aloe tincture (Aloe exelsa) and pumpkin seed (Cucurbita pepo) on sexual behaviour of inexperienced male rats. Male rats were treated orally with ethanol extracts of M. whitei and E. capensis, aloe tincture (from aloe juice) and pumpkin seed powder. The sexual behaviour of the rats treated with extracts was compared with those treated with 100 ìg of testosterone as the positivecontrol and those receiving normal rat feed as negative control. The receptivity of the females was rendered homogeneous with daily dose of estadiol benzoate. The sexual behaviour of the rats were observed over one ejaculatory phase for five consecutive days. The results showed a dose dependent increase in sexual arousability (decreased mounting latency), copulatory efficiency (decreased intercoupulatory interval) and improved sexual sensation (increased in neuromotor activity) for the ratstreated with M. whitei and E. capensis, aloe and pumpkin seeds showing an increase in sexual performance in terms of intromissions and ejaculatory latency which also improved sexual sensation and coupulatory efficiency. The formulations of plants under investigation showed significantaphrodisiac properties

Developing New Value Chains for Small‐Scale and Emerging Cattle Farmers in South Africa

In this paper we look back on the first year of a three‐year project which aims to undertake the researchnecessary to develop a wider range of market outlets, products and value chains for beef produced by thesmall‐scale and emerging sector in South Africa. We discuss the difficulties encountered in designing andimplementing the project, and we review progress towards achieving the economic, social and environmentaloutcomes that we are seeking

Participation of smallholder farmers in agro-processing industries : implications for the extension services of Gauteng Province

The study aimed to evaluate the levels of participation of smallholder farmers in the agro-processing industries of Gauteng Province. The main objective was to determine the implications of participation or lack thereof for the extension services, using an exploratory mixed sequential design. Four focus group sessions were conducted to account for qualitative data collection, and the survey data was gathered from three regions of Gauteng Province (West Rand, Pretoria, and Germiston). A sample of smallholder farmers (n=78) was purposively selected across the three regions to select participants. The results revealed that factors such as institutional design, condition of participation, and collaboration were critical in influencing these farmers. However, the results also revealed that leadership did not affect either of the levels of participation of these farmers. Therefore, these results suggest that the level of participation in smallholder farming could be improved, should the influential factors be taken into consideration during the development planning of these farmers. It is recommended that strategic plans formulated by the supporting institutions consider these influential factors as the tools for the transformation of the agro-processing industries. These factors could stimulate participation by smallholder farmers in this sector.The Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) and the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC).http://www.journals.co.za/content/journal/agriam2020Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen