Assessing the Impact of Privatizing Public Agricultural Extension Services on Smallholder Farmers’ Performance: A Case Study of Thulamela and Collins Chabane Municipalities, South Africa

Fig. 1.

Parameter estimates of the multiple linear regression on smallholder farmers’ performance

Independent variables	Coefficients	Robust std. errors	p > z	Marginal effects
1	2	3	4	5
Age	798.5133	1415.572	0.573	1415.572
Gender	5114.013	2718.233	0.061	2718.233*
Marital status	−616.379	1414.943	0.663	–1414.943
Education level	488.629	1672.531	0.770	1672.531
Household size	379.4328	546.6539	0.488	546.6539
Land size	895.504	1630.685	0.583	1630.685
Credit access	–9052.274	4055.356	0.026	–4055.356**
Market access	–4014.01	3853.336	0.298	3853.336
Access to public extension	–7561.935	3320.066	0.023	–3320.066*
Access to privatised extension	24570.588	4185.132	0.033	7663.778**
Farming experience	–908.9099	1656.341	0.584	–1656.341
Extension feedback	12641.12	3090.467	0.000	3090.467***
Farm input	3223.261	1518.573	0.035	1518.573**
Market price information access	5766.113	3562.412	0.014	1970.345**
Membership in farmer cooperatives	4689.345	3677.534	0.081	2703.57*
Climate adaptation practices	3274.042	2761.336	0.071	1782.73**
Constant	17426.89	8839.241	0.050
Number of observations = 319, R2 = 0.706, P > F = 0.000.

Parametric One-way ANOVA results between smallholder farmers’ performance and socioeconomic parameters

Variable (Mean)	Measure	Annual income from farmers’ production	n	p-value
1	2	3	4	5
Age	<25	12175.00	12	ns
	26–35	15256.74	35
	36–45	16571.76	54
	46–55	21631.75	88
	56–65	15978.58	52
	66>	17235.90	78
Marital status	Single	19489.51	90
	Married	16543.91	149	ns
	Divorced	15650.67	15
	Widowed	18461.26	65
	Never attended	18475.03
Educational level	Primary school	15880.62	35
	Secondary school	19031.26	76	ns
	Tertiary	16479.42	146
Household size	1–5	20745.60	180	***
	6–10	29650.00	133
	11–15	15678.57	6
Farm size (hectares)	<1 hectare	17778.58	57
	1 hectare	15962.55	146	ns
	1–5 hectare	20439.51	102
	5>	16078.57	14
Farming experience	<10	20239.59	85
	11–20	15089.53	99	ns
	21–30	14876.71	66
	31>	21126.81	69
Climate adaptation practices	No adaptation	1556.34	55
	Moderate adaptation	1734.37	115	**
	High adaptation	1876.46	149

Description of variables used in the multiple linear regression model

Dependent variable	Description	Unit of measurement
1	2	3
Annual income from farmers’ production	Total income earned by the household head	Rand (R)
Independent variables	Description and unit of measurement	Expected sign
Age	Categorical: level of household head age in years	+
Gender	Binary: 1 if the head is male and 0 if female	+/−
Marital status	Categorical: marital status level of household head	+
Education level	Categorical: educational level of the household head	+
Household size	Categorical: level of family size in numbers	−
Land size	Categorical: level of land size in hectares	+
Credit access	Binary: 1 if access credit and 0 otherwise	+
Market access	Binary: 1 if access market and 0 otherwise	+
Access to public extension	Binary: 1 if has access to public extension service and 0 otherwise	+
Access to privatised extension	Binary: 1 if has access to privatized extension service and 0 otherwise	+
Farming experience	Categorical: level of farming experience of the head in years	+
Extension feedback	Binary: 1 Extension feedback length too long and 0 otherwise	_
Climate adaptation practices	Categorical: Climate adaptation practices	+
Farm input	Binary: 1 has access and 0 has no access	+
Market price information access	Binary: 1 has access and 0 has no access	+
Membership in farmer cooperatives	Binary: 1 member and 0 non-member	+

T-test results for Determinants of smallholder farmers’ performance in the study area

Variable (mean)	Measure	Annual income from farmers’ production	n	p-value
1	2	3	4	5
Access to public extension services	No	11588.13	69	***
	Yes	19417.04	250
Access to privatised extension services	No	16906.81	34	**
	Yes	24570.59	285
Gender	Male	13749.13	128	***
	Female	20387.18	191
Extension feedback length	Too long	12610.02	190	***
	Not too long	21195.52	129
Market access	No	14216.49	211	***
	Yes	19518.77	108
Credit access	No	17498.93	232	ns
	Yes	17807.91	87
Farm input	Has access	4178.56	279	**
	No access	1753.49	40
Market price information access	Has access	2222.56	279	**
	No access	2347.88	40
Membership in farmer cooperatives	Member	3567.02	280	**
	Non-member	1780.56	39

Socio-economic demographic profiles of smallholder farmers

Household characteristics		Study area		Total (n = 319)	Percentage (%)
		Collins Chabane municipality	Thulamela municipality
	1	2	3	4	5
Gender	Male	64	64	128	40
	Female	134	57	191	60
Age	<25	8	4	12	4
	26–35	20	15	35	11
	36–45	36	18	54	17
	46–55	51	37	88	28
	56–65	40	12	52	16
	66>	43	35	78	25
Marital status	Single	60	30	90	28
	Married	88	61	149	47
	Divorced	8	7	15	5
	Widowed	42	23	65	20
Educational level	Never attended	21	14	35	11
	Primary school	40	36	76	2
	Secondary school	100	46	146	46
	Tertiary	37	25	62	19
Household size	1–5	115	65	180	57
	6–0	81	52	133	42
	11–15	2	4	6	2