Socioeconomic factors: Effect on the commercialization of female farmers participating in a development program

The development of entrepreneurship is one of the keys to rural poverty reduction in South Africa and the world at large. There is increasing deep concern about the worsening food security situation in several nations of the world. The onus is on the development of programs where not only men can benefit but also women, the effect and the contribution of women to the food security status rests on the development of entrepreneurship i.e. female agricultural entrepreneurs in the community. Commercialization is the basis of entrepreneurship in agriculture. Commercialization in agriculture entails more than just production but also a linkage between the household and the market. This linkage could be related to the output side or the input side. It is the aim of this study to identify the socioeconomic characteristics of the female farmers participating in a development program and to analyze the effects of the identified characteristics on their degree of commercialization. Using frequency and percentage table, parameters such as location, age, marital status, educational status, religion, household size, farming experience, farm size, number of employees, extension visits, extension source, cooperative membership, participation in a development program, entrepreneurial activity were all identified. Commercialization indices for the output and input sales were generated from the data in which the output sales were used as a dependent variable using the Ordinary Least Square regression to test for the effect of the socioeconomic characteristics on the degree of commercialization of respondents. Among the significant variables tested, educational status was positively significant, extension visit was positively significant, extension source was positively significant, membership of a cooperative society was negatively significant, participation in the development program was positively significant to the degree of commercialization. The majority indicated High entrepreneurship development.