Total factor productivity of urban agriculture on the urban periphery of Cape Town

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorDyer, Martin
dc.contributor.authorMills, Richard
dc.contributor.authorConradie, Beatrice
dc.contributor.authorPiesse, Jenifer
dc.date.accessioned2016-08-30T07:12:53Z
dc.date.available2016-08-30T07:12:53Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractThis paper investigates the efficiency relationships between inputs and outputs of urban micro-farms in two of Cape Town’s townships: Nyanga and Khayelitsha. The inputs in this study were land, labour, seeds and seedlings, compost and farmer experience. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied to 33 producers supplying a social enterprise box scheme, thereby generating individual efficiency measures relative to best practice. The DEA results revealed an average level of overall, technical and scale efficiency of 72.4%, 79.7% and 90.6% respectively. Overall efficiency was negatively correlated with land holdings and the use of compost and seedlings. This is supported by the finding that the nine best-practice farms were characterised by a smaller scale of production, indicating that efficiency losses are experienced as greater quantities of inputs are used. In terms of area differences, Nyanga farms exhibit significantly higher technical efficiency, whereas farms in Khayelitsha are more scale efficient. Standardised input and output data show both the expenditure on compost and seed to be profitable, but we failed to show that mulching or operator experience increases profitability. Fully efficient farms are R2,600 per plot more profitable than inefficient farms while farms that need a windbreak earn R700 less per plot per season than more sheltered operations. These results are the first of their kind for South Africa and lay the foundation for more effective extension to the sector.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationDyer, M., Mills, R., Conradie, B., & Piesse, J. (2015). <i>Total factor productivity of urban agriculture on the urban periphery of Cape Town</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Survey Unit. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21601en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationDyer, Martin, Richard Mills, Beatrice Conradie, and Jenifer Piesse <i>Total factor productivity of urban agriculture on the urban periphery of Cape Town.</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Survey Unit, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21601en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationDyer, M., Mills, R., Conradie, B. & Piesse, J. (2015). Total factor productivity of urban agriculture on the urban periphery of Cape Town. CSSR Working Paper No. 365. Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.isbn978-1-77011-352-7en_ZA
dc.identifier.risTY - Working Paper AU - Dyer, Martin AU - Mills, Richard AU - Conradie, Beatrice AU - Piesse, Jenifer AB - This paper investigates the efficiency relationships between inputs and outputs of urban micro-farms in two of Cape Town’s townships: Nyanga and Khayelitsha. The inputs in this study were land, labour, seeds and seedlings, compost and farmer experience. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied to 33 producers supplying a social enterprise box scheme, thereby generating individual efficiency measures relative to best practice. The DEA results revealed an average level of overall, technical and scale efficiency of 72.4%, 79.7% and 90.6% respectively. Overall efficiency was negatively correlated with land holdings and the use of compost and seedlings. This is supported by the finding that the nine best-practice farms were characterised by a smaller scale of production, indicating that efficiency losses are experienced as greater quantities of inputs are used. In terms of area differences, Nyanga farms exhibit significantly higher technical efficiency, whereas farms in Khayelitsha are more scale efficient. Standardised input and output data show both the expenditure on compost and seed to be profitable, but we failed to show that mulching or operator experience increases profitability. Fully efficient farms are R2,600 per plot more profitable than inefficient farms while farms that need a windbreak earn R700 less per plot per season than more sheltered operations. These results are the first of their kind for South Africa and lay the foundation for more effective extension to the sector. DA - 2015-06 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 SM - 978-1-77011-352-7 T1 - Total factor productivity of urban agriculture on the urban periphery of Cape Town TI - Total factor productivity of urban agriculture on the urban periphery of Cape Town UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21601 ER -en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/21601
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationDyer M, Mills R, Conradie B, Piesse J. Total factor productivity of urban agriculture on the urban periphery of Cape Town. 2015 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21601en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentSocial Survey Uniten_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_ZA
dc.titleTotal factor productivity of urban agriculture on the urban periphery of Cape Townen_ZA
dc.typeWorking Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceWorking paperen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Dyer, Mills, Conradie, Piesse_Working Paper 365_2015.pdf
Size:
669.26 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.72 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Working Papers