DEFINING SMALL-SCALE FARMERS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT

South African agriculture is comprised of mainly two categories of farmers -- the subsistence farmers in the former homeland areas and the large-scale commercial (mainly white) farmers. This is in contrast with the situation in many other countries in the world where one would find a whole range of farm sizes, ranging from the very small or subsistence farmer to the very large farmer/agribusiness. The paper highlights the situation of small-scale farmers in an international context and compares it with the South African situation that is totally different. Within this context, this paper has as basic premise that in South Africa the concept of "small-scale farmer" is usually value-laden, creates wrong impressions and is often viewed in a negative light. "Small-scale" is often equated with a backward, nonproductive, non-commercial, subsistence agriculture that we find in parts of the former homeland areas. This paper endeavours to correct the negative perceptions towards smallscale farms by redefining the small-scale farmer and laying to rest the fallacy that small relates to land size only.Farm Management,

Estimation of the rate of return to wine grape research and technology development expenditures in South Africa

This article evaluates the impact of research and technology development in the wine grape industry in order to determine the rate of return (ROR) to these investments, and to make specific recommendations on funding. The analysis illustrates the applied and adaptive nature of the research conducted in the industry, with RORs of roughly 40 percent for R&D and extension. This is high, providing excellent motivation for increased investment in R&D.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

A Proposed New Method to Determine the Effectiveness of In-Heading Methane Control

Various methods have been derived to determine the effectiveness with which ventilation systems clears headings of methane in a bord-and-pillar sections. A problem with applying these methods in underground sections is that the either require the face-area air quantity to be measured, which is virtually impossible in South African collieries, or they were developed for test galleries, making it difficult to use in production sections. Taking this into consideration the methane safety index (MSI) method was developed. The method utilizes methane data recorded around an active continuous miner (CM) and an activity log of cm operations to quantitatively assess methane control. Factors used includes methane levels, trends in peak values and regulatory safety levels. With the aid of a spreadsheet a single number is calculated describing the methane clearing ability of a ventilation system. Advantages of MSI method is that there are three fixed and discrete categories of values, making interpretation easy. The method will also give reliable feedback were low methane levels are present and can be used to quantitatively asses how well a ventilation system coping with the methane load

Die lewe en werk van H P Wolmarans, teologiese dosent 1935-1959

The life and work of H P Wolmarans, lecturer in theology 1935-1959This article, written by his successor and a former student, professor emeritus Francois J van Zyl, contains an in-depth discussion of prof H P Woimarans’s theological views on Revelation, Christ and on the various religions. Wolmarans is depicted as a theologian in the Reformed tradition, although critical of Calvin and, more specifically, Bavinck, with regard to natural revelation. His doctoral thesis displayed a great admiration of the Dutch theologian, Kohlbrugge. Later he became the first proponent in the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk of the German school of Dialectic Theology, as represented by Emil Brunner

Wie is die sondaar? Die beskouing van Karl Barth

Who is the sinner? The view of Karl BarthThe previous article dealt with Barth’s view of the knowledge and real essence of sin, while this one focus on his view of the human being as sinner. In accordance with his christological approach to all theological matters, Barth presents us with a description of the image and character of the sinner as mirrored by the obedient suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross in the place of all sinners of all times - past, present and future. The price that God paid in surrendering his only Son to suchsuffering, indicates the enormous guilt and baseness of every sinner. Every human being is utterly insolvent and can only be delivered from sin through God’s graceful remission of sin

Endangered man and the reply of the Christian from the juridical viewpoint*

The central theme of this series of lectures implies that man — and then especially modern man, who provokes our concern — is an endangered being and that the Christian has a reply to this threat. I have been accorded the signal honour of being asked to evaluate the problem from the point of view of the Law. I would like to extend my cordial appreciation to the PU for CHE for this invitation. There can be no doubt as far as the first implication goes, which is that man is an endangered being. The second implication, which claims that the Christian always has an answer, is more problematic, especially if one looks at the central theme from the point of view of Law

SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE IN TRANSITION: THE 1990'S

International Development,

Assessing the benefits of research expenditures on maize production in South Africa

This paper focuses on assessing the benefits of research expenditures on maize production in South Africa. Both the production and supply function approaches are used to calculate elasticities of research expenditure on output and yield. Cointegration is used to establish long-run relationships between variables in these models. The lag structure of R&D expenditures on output is examined making use of the unrestricted, polynomial, beta and gamma distributions. The coefficients of these lag distributions were then used to calculate a rate of return to maize research expenditure, which was estimated as being between 28% and 39% per annum. These rates of return are high, mitigating in favour of more research expenditure rather than less.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Machinery and labour biases of technical change in South African agriculture: A cost function approach

This paper provides an empirical investigation into the long-standing notion of biases of technical change in South African agriculture. The second order cost function is used to derive relative bias measures between labour and machinery. The results suggest that large machinery-using biases in technology have been developed with minimal labour-using biases.Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,