Assessment of extension services on capacity building of smallholder livestock farmers in Midvaal local municipality, Gauteng province

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of extension services on capacity building of smallholder livestock farmers in Midvaal Local Municipality, Gauteng Province, South Africa. A simple random sample technique was used to select the participants, so that individual farmers in the study population could have an equal chance of being selected in the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 148 smallholder livestock farmers. The data gathered from participants was coded and captured in Microsoft Excel. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, mean, percentages, standard deviation, ranking order, and inferential statistics such as binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. Results showed that technical farm visits (M = 3.3, SD = ±1.36) and informal training (M = 3.2, SD = ±1.31) were effective extension methods. Furthermore, they showed that extension services were less effective at enabling farmers to penetrate formal markets (M = 2,0 SD = ±1.06) and access finance (M = 1.9, SD = ±1.01). The binary logistic regression model revealed that gender and farming status were the main variables that significantly (P<0.05) influenced smallholder livestock farmers’ access to extension services. It was


INTRODUCTION
Agricultural extension can be defined in many ways, but it should be noted that it is one of the tools used to encourage agricultural development through scientific research, knowledge, and technologies to improve agricultural practices through farmer education, which will result in the growth of the beneficiaries (Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services (INGENAES), 2015;Mbembela et al., 2018). It plays a critical role in the empowerment of human and social capital required to maintain sustainable agricultural development (Stevens and Ntai, 2011). As a result, farmers will become better managers, make better decisions, contribute to agricultural development, and earn a higher income. (Norton and Alwang, 2019). This can be implemented through agricultural advisory services, involving subject matter specialists, private organisations, and government entities, through proper consultations and frequent advice from extension officers or agricultural advisors (Nkosi, 2017).
In South Africa, most smallholder farmers are classified as farmers residing on communal lands and are governed by traditional authorities. They are underprivileged, less educated, and have underdeveloped infrastructure (Thamaga-Chitja and Morojele, 2014). They are also known for having poor production management skills, a lack of adoption of modern technologies, not being market orientated (Tselaesele et al., 2018), limited access to proper farm infrastructure, insufficient access to production inputs, inadequate access to formal markets, and no access to finance (Chepape and Maoba 2020). As a result, the sustainability and profitability of their enterprises will be compromised. Even in their predicament, they strive to contribute to food security so that everyone has constant access to adequate, safe, and healthy food for a healthy life (May, 2017). What makes matters worse is, according to Zantsi and Bester (2019), the agricultural extension service in South Africa has not yet achieved its mandate of transferring skills and technology, knowledge and solving problems of smallholder farmers to develop them. However, Chepape and Maoba (2020) found that smallholder farmers have access to S. Afr. J. Agric. Ext. Manyakanyaka, Modirwa, Tshwene & Maoba Vol. 50 No. 2, 2022: 173-187 10.17159/2413-3221/2022 175 technical and advisory services, as well as information and knowledge management through extension services in Gauteng Province, South Africa. According to Stevens and Ntai (2011), an investment in knowledge is important for sustainable agricultural development. Therefore, capacity building is key in the development of the farming community as it assists in the operations of an entity through the improvement of management skills (Lammert et al., 2015).
Thus, this study seeks to assess and document the extension services on the capacity building of smallholder livestock farmers in the study area.

Aim
The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of extension services on the capacity building of smallholder livestock farmers in Midvaal Local Municipality.

The specific objectives of the study were
• To assess the effectiveness and accessibility of extension services to smallholder livestock farmers in the Midvaal Local.
• To identify the challenges faced by smallholder livestock farmers in Midvaal Local Municipality.
• To determine the association between dependent and independent variables using a binary logistic regression model.

Hypothesis
The following null hypotheses were made: H1: Extension services on capacity building of smallholder livestock farmers in the Midvaal area were not effective and accessible.
H2: There were no constraints faced by the smallholder livestock farmers in the Midvaal area.
H3: There was no significant relationship between the dependent and independent variables tested.

176
The study was conducted at Midvaal Local Municipality (26.5837° S, 28.0654° E) in Gauteng Province ( Figure 1). This municipality is situated within Sedibeng District Municipality, in the Southern region of Gauteng Province in South Africa. Therefore, the database was adopted as the study population (238 smallholder livestock farmers). A simple random sampling technique was used to select the participants, so that individual farmers in the study population would have an equal chance of being selected. The sample size consisted of 148 smallholder livestock farmers selected from the study population using the 7 th version of the Raosoft software sample calculator.

Data collection
A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the targeted participants from the 11 th of January to the 31 st of March 2021 and was administered face to face. However, prior to its finalisation it was pre-tested on some farmers not selected for the study purposes. The S. Afr. J. Agric. Ext. Manyakanyaka, Modirwa, Tshwene & Maoba Vol. 50 No. 2, 2022: 173-187 10.17159/2413-3221/2022 (License: CC BY 4.0) 177 questionnaire contained closed-ended questions and was divided into four sections based on the objectives of the study.

Data analyses
The data gathered from participants were coded and captured in Microsoft Excel (Ms Excel) 2016 Office 365. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, mean, percentages, standard deviation, rank order and inferential statistics such as binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. All the data collected were summarised and presented in table format. The analyses of extension and advisory services on capacity building of smallholder livestock were measured using a 5-point Likert scale; (1) Highly ineffective; (2) Ineffective; (3) Moderately effective; (4) Effective; (5) Highly effective. The mean score for each extension and advisory services was computed. The tested services with a less than 3 mean scores were depicted to be less effective, while those with greater than or equal to 3 mean scores were denoted as being effective. The constraint index (CI) was used to establish the order of the challenges faced by smallholder livestock farmers in accessing extension and advisory services on capacity building in the study area, using the following formula: Constraint Index (CI) = PLHC x 4 + PLMC x 3 + PLLC x 2 + PLNC x 1 Where, PLHCdenotes percentage of livestock farmers who had high constraints PLMCdenotes percentage of livestock farmers who had medium constraints PLLCdenotes percentage of livestock farmers who had constraints PLNCdenotes percentage of livestock farmers who had no constraints

Binary logistic regression model
The binary logistic regression model was adopted in this study because the dependent variable had binary outcomes and it permits determination of the likelihood of a certain event occurring.
The dependent variable was an agricultural extension service measured on a dichotomous scale, namely, received or not received extension services and denoted as 1 or 0, respectively. The predictions were based on gender, age, marital status, level of education, household size, employment status, and farm size of the livestock farmers in the study area. The independent variables had both categorical and continuous variables. The association between the dependent and independent variables was not linear, therefore a logistic regression model was used, which was the logit transformation of y. The variables used in the model were presented in Table 1 and computed as follows: S. Afr. J. Agric. Ext. Manyakanyaka, Modirwa, Tshwene & Maoba Vol. 50 No. 2, 2022: 173-187 10.17159/2413-3221/2022 (License: CC BY 4.0) 178 Logit (p) = In ( P 1−P ) = ɑ +  1 X 1 +  2 X 2 + 3 X 3 +  4 X 4 +  5 X 5 +  6 X 6 +  7 X 7 + Ui

Ethical considerations
The study considered the ethical consideration which was addressed through voluntary participation, and the respondents' right to privacy was respected by obtaining direct consent from them. Ethical clearance was obtained from the ethics committee of the North-West University Mafikeng campus.

Accessibility and effectiveness of extension services on capacity building of smallholder livestock farmers (N = 148)
The findings on the accessibility and effectiveness of extension services on capacity building towards smallholder livestock farmers are shown in  Vol. 50 No. 2, 2022: 173-187 10.17159/2413-3221/2022 179 to production inputs (M = 3.0, SD = ±1.37) were effective extension services in the study area and 64 % of the participants had access to them. Although, farmers had access to production inputs (57%) in the current study, but they were only 7% less compared to farmers in the Bronkhorstspruit area (Chepape and Maoba 2020). The findings of this study agreed with Maoba (2016a), who reported that study groups, farmers' day, and farm visits were effective extension methods. However, the following tested extension services were found to be less  (2020) reported that smallholder farmers' access to infrastructure development and formal markets in the Bronkhorstspruit area was at 53 and 10%, respectively. While, in the present study, access to infrastructure and the formal market remained at 25 and 22%, respectively. That was an indication that more work was still needed to capacitate smallholder livestock farmers with the infrastructure development and access to formal markets in the Midvaal area. These results confirm the finding of Chepape and Maoba (2020), that most smallholder farmers still don't have access to marketing and business development opportunities. Furthermore, according to Chepape and Maoba (2020), that was a demonstration of the failure of government programmes to close existing gaps to accommodate smallholder farmers into the marketing opportunities. However, the cause of some extension services' being less effective may be attributed to the availability of the budget, the capacity of agricultural advisors, lack of collaboration among stakeholders, stringent requirements by financial institutions, and the quality of the products, amongst others. Thus, according to Mahlangu et al., (2020), it is vital to consider the available resources within the unit, consult with relevant stakeholders, and come up with a viable approach or approaches that will respond to the needs of the participants.   Vol. 50 No. 2, 2022: 173-187 10.17159/2413-3221/2022 (License: CC BY 4.0) 181

Capacity building challenges faced by smallholder livestock farmers in the Midvaal area
The findings on the constraints faced by the participants in the study area are shown in Table   3, and it should be noted that constraints with a mean (M) value of less than 2.5 were minor constraints, whereas those above and equal to the mean value were major constraints. The   Manyakanyaka, Modirwa, Tshwene & Maoba Vol. 50 No. 2, 2022: 173-187 10.17159/2413-3221/2022 183

Regression analysis
The results of the binary logistic regression model are presented in

CONCLUSIONS
The study has shown that extension services in the study area were playing a major role in the capacity building of smallholder livestock farmers. The most effective extension services were farm visits for the provision of technical advice, informal training, and production inputs. The accessibility to extension services was significantly influenced by gender and farming status, i.e., whether they were farming full time or part time. Male and part-time livestock farmers were 30% less likely to receive extension services. The major constraints faced by the farmers in question need to be addressed to maximize their potential to maintain sustainability and develop smallholder livestock farmers.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the results of the study it was recommended that: • Some extension services that are less accessible must be improved in order for extension to be more effective in capacity building.
• A comprehensive developmental plan is needed to boost the provision of formal training, farm infrastructure, access to formal markets and access to finance.
• The major challenges faced by smallholder livestock farmers must be addressed urgently to maintain their sustainability and growth.
• All the support from extension services should respond to the needs of the farming community within a reasonable time frame.