Determinants of Bushbuckridge Smallholder Crop Farmers’ Participation in Formal Market Channels: A Binary Logistic Regression

Abstract

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Smallholder Crop Farmers (SCFs) play a vital role in creating job opportunities, providing food, and sustaining rural livelihoods against poverty and improving food security. However, in South Africa, yields remain low due to socio-economic constraints and limited market participation. This restricts SCFs' access to formal market information, affecting SCFs’ ability to engage successfully in formal markets and affecting sustainable farming. This study investigated the socio-economic determinants of SCFs’ participation in formal market channels in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality, Mpumalanga province. Primary data were collected from 99 SCFs through structured interviews and analyzed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression. The results reveal that only 28% of SCFs were sold through formal markets, while the majority (72%) relied on informal channels such as farmgate sales. Interestingly, levels of education (p = 0.046) and larger farm sizes (p = 0.002) were negatively associated with formal market use, suggesting that more educated and larger-scale farmers often diversify income sources or prefer informal channels. On the contrary, SCFs relying on agriculture as their main source of primary source of income (p = 0.022) and those with vehicles (p = 0.042) significantly increased the likelihood of formal market participation, with vehicle owners nearly four times more likely to access formal buyers. These findings highlight that transport assets and focusing on farming as a livelihood are crucial enablers of formal market participation, whereas education and land size do not necessarily guarantee integration into structured value chains. The study recommends a holistic approach to better extension services, transport solutions, and access to timely and relevant market information systems to strengthen SCFs' inclusion in formal agricultural markets.

Res. Agric. Livest. Fish. 13(2): 295-308