Yonas Bahta

• PhD in Agricultural Economics
• Full Professor at University of the Free State

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has impacted the world economy significantly, especially food security, employment, and welfare among migrants in developing countries. In South Africa, the majority of migrants are involved in the informal sector and lack social protection mechanisms to buffer the crisis. This study contributes to knowledge and p...

This scholarly book magnifies reflections from young scientists in South Africa, Africa and beyond around the COVID-19 pandemic. With contributions by upcoming scientists, this scholarly book provides a synopsis of socio-ecological-economic views on the impact of COVID-19. Through its chapters, the book takes a multi-disciplinary approach to reflec...

There are discernible trends in severe food insecurity prevalence among the adult population in sub-Saharan Africa. This study delves into the complex interactions of climate change impacts, agricultural factor productivity, and changes in population growth, which together exacerbate the issue of food insecurity. To comprehend these intertwined eff...

The scarcity of water resources in South Africa remains a considerable challenge for water users. This study evaluated the impact of climate variability on the adaptive water-use behaviour of sugarcane producers by identifying the factors influencing their adaptation decisions. A survey, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and structural equatio...

This study used survey data to measure the benefits of paid herding for small stockholders on the communal rangelands of the eastern Free State. Extensionists can recommend herding to their clients because it mitigated the worst of a recent drought by controlling intermediate consumption and facilitating better recruitment. However, the practice di...

This study used survey data to measure the benefits of paid herding for small stockholders on the communal rangelands of the eastern Free State. Extensionists can recommend herding to their clients because it mitigated the worst of a recent drought by controlling intermediate consumption and facilitating better recruitment. However, the practice di...

Background Gender disparities in access to inputs, markets, financial inclusion, and participation in strategic value chains are major developmental challenges in emerging economies. Participation in the edible insect value chain has become an essential source of income, food, and nutrition in some African countries. This paper uses a bivariate pro...

The purpose of the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) is to improve the quality of the database for modelling, including, but not limited to, policy analysis, multiplier analysis, price analysis, and Computable General Equilibrium. This article contributes to constructing the 2017 national SAM for South Africa, incorporating regional accounts. Only in...

The purpose of the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) is to improve the quality of the database for modelling, including, but not limited to, policy analysis, multiplier analysis, price analysis, and Computable General Equilibrium. This article contributes to constructing the 2017 national SAM for South Africa, incorporating regional accounts. Only in...

The impacts of drought and climate change on agriculture have become increasingly apparent, and affect smallholder livestock farmers. Farmers’ livelihoods rely on agriculture; thus, they are vulnerable to the primary and secondary impacts of climate change. In South Africa, policies for increasing the resilience of smallholder livestock farmers who...

One of the barriers to water resilience is human behavior, which is influenced by a number of contextual and psychological factors. Contextual factors include socioeconomic, technical, institutional, and environmental factors, while behavioral factors include but are not limited to factors associated with the perception of risk, attitudes, and norm...

The development of irrigation systems is strategically used to improve food security and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2) of ending hunger and poverty. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of irrigation agriculture on the economy of the Limpopo Province, South Africa. This study used the 2017 national social a...

Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) is closely linked to the sustainable management of water resources and sanitation worldwide. SDG 6.4, in particular, aims to significantly improve water-use efficiency across all sectors by 2030. It is important to acknowledge the significant role that behavioural aspects of water users in an agricultural cont...

Water use behaviour and efficiency are essential topics regarding water scarcity. Water is a life-sustaining resource used for various activities within the three primary sectors: agricultural, industrial, and domestic. Increasing competition among these sectors could affect the availability and sustainability of water use. The higher demand for ag...

One of the barriers to water resilience is human behavior, which is influenced by a number of contextual and psychological factors. Contextual factors include socioeconomic, technical, institutional, and environmental factors, while behavioral factors include but are not limited to factors associated with the perception of risk, attitudes, and norm...

The concept of sustainable water use serves as an indicator of environmental, economic, and social pressure on freshwater resources globally; however, the social element of sustainability is not well researched within water-consumption studies. The objective of this paper is to consider the current state of the literature on social sustainability i...

To achieve a more sustainable agricultural production system, the focus should extend beyond solely promoting the adoption of organic farming to include an emphasis on extensification. A synergistic approach involving Branding/informal certification, price premiums for organic produce, and government subsidies holds the potential to drive higher le...

The study assessed the roles of women and the ownership of land trends in Lesotho, particularly during the 2015/2016 drought in Lesotho. A mixed-method approach, which combined both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, and a semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The collected data included demographic information, hou...

Governments cannot effectively manage and handle disasters, particularly at the local community level, without actively engaging vulnerable people. The key to achieving sustainability in disaster recovery is community participation and information dissemination. The informal settlements’ lack of access to information and public engagement hampered...

Ethical consumerism has been on the rise since the early 1900s; thus, increasing discerning consumers. Consumers place greater importance on intangible attributes such as the origin and societal and environmental impacts of the products. Studies focus on agricultural niche marketing in the South African and sub-Saharan context, but none focus on ni...

The re-engineering of urban city planning and transformation of land spaces should be guided by the vision of creating liveable, secure spaces and resourcefully efficient cities and towns. The study's objective was to assess the social resilience of Khayalitjha in-situ informal settlement in the Free State Province of South Africa based on service...

The resilience to agricultural drought of female smallholder livestock farmers in the Northern Cape province of South Africa was examined using the Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI). The A-WEAI consists of the 5DE index (five domains of empowerment) and the GPI (gender parity index). The total population interviewed was...

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between multi-explanatory variables and food trade in a global context to fill a research gap using System General Method of Moments (GMM) framework analysis that, to the best of our knowledge, has not been applied regarding this issue, our aim is to contribute to the existing literature. The...

Livestock farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa rely on rain-fed agriculture, which exposes them to the risks of agricultural drought. Agricultural drought has become a significant threat to the extreme mortality of livestock, thus negatively impacting social vulnerability and household resilience to agricultural drought and extreme events. Researchers rar...

Small-scale livestock farmers in the drylands of South Africa are highly exposed to agricultural drought-related food insecurity. Research has used descriptive analyses and missed the need to index the diversity of coping strategies used for managing agricultural drought-induced food insecurity. This study was conducted to bridge this gap using a t...

The global literature widely uses Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Lafay Index (LFI), Export Diversification (EDI), Hirschman (HI), and Major Export Category (MEC) to analyze international trade flows, though agricultural trade, specifically agri-food commodities consisting of food and feed commodities, is neglected in empirical works. Further...

In an economic sense, heartwater disease is the most important tick-borne disease faced by South African livestock farmers. Methods to control the disease vary among farmers, and the preferred method depends on the prevalence of the disease in a specific area. The cost-effectiveness of different acaricide prevention methods against heartwater disea...

Previous research on agricultural productivity in Africa has focused on conventional Total Factor productivity (TFP) growth rather than Green Total factor productivity (GATFP) growth, thus ignoring the effect of undesirable outputs such as emissions. This has raised concerns about the sustainability of agricultural productivity growth in the contin...

The study assesses the impact of the live sheep export trade on the South African economy. The study used a recent South African Social Accounting Matrix and a partial equilibrium model. The results are mixed. On a positive note, the higher the demand for live sheep exports, the higher the prices and the more significant the economic impact. On the...

Reducing postharvest losses (PHLs) in the South African citrus industry is fundamental in ensuring food, income, and nutrition security. However, there is limited knowledge on the extent of postharvest losses, their diversity, and the associated inhibiting factors. These factors compromise postharvest loss management strategies and how they can be...

Livestock production systems are essential for sustaining household food security, especially in the drylands of Africa. This study assesses the impact of South Africa’s targeted Large Stock Unit (LSU) social protection program on the acute food insecurity effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among selected smallholder livestock farmers. An embedded re...

There are quite a lot of studies from global and regional perspectives that touch on sustainable water use in agriculture. As a result, we explored Biblioshiny to review the scholarly research on the sustainable use of water in agriculture. Using data analysis and visualization technique of 4106 documents authored by 12,686 scholars in 724 journals...

The effort to increase agricultural productivity continues to receive interest in Africa as low productivity levels, poverty and food insecurity remain or even increase. This study used the Färe-Primont Index to estimate agricultural total factor productivity growth for 49 African countries. Panel data consisting of 833 observations for the period...

Understanding the complexities of catastrophe susceptibility, including that caused by agricultural droughts, is crucial to disaster risk reduction. This paper assessed and identified the social vulnerability of smallholder livestock farmers in South Africa's Northern Cape Province to agricultural drought using survey data, the social vulnerability...

Most blended climate smart agriculture (CSA) technologies focusing on seed-fertilizer combinations have either been marginally adopted or dis-adopted by smallholder farmers due to the nature of design and implementation. A data science research approach was used with 380 households in the mid-Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe. The study examines impact of...

Farmers in Africa, including those in South Africa, rely on rain-fed agriculture, which exposes them to the risks of agricultural drought. Agricultural drought has become a major threat to agricultural production, including the extreme mortality of livestock in recent years, thus negatively impacting household food security. Hence, this paper is ai...

Globally, predation is an important and ongoing problem facing the livestock sector. This study estimated the downstream economic impact of predation in the South African red meat industry using a recent South African Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and a partial equilibrium model. Due to predation the total output decreased by R 3,806 million and R...

Sheep production in South Africa has experienced some growth though very slow, and as such production cannot meet demand in the local market. This study aimed to determine the factor influencing the competitiveness of smallholder sheep farmers’ and constraints faced by sheep farmers in South Africa. A farm-level cross-sectional data of 217 smallhol...

The Northern Cape Province of South Africa faces drought that limits human endeavours, and which explains the unpredictable progress in livestock production over time. This study evaluated the impact of agricultural drought on smallholder farming households’ resilience in the Northern Cape Province. Data from 217 smallholder livestock farmers were...

The Northern Cape Province of South Africa faces drought that limits human endeavors, and which explains the unpredictable progress in livestock production over time. This study evaluated the impact of agricultural drought on smallholder farming households’ resilience in the Northern Cape Province. Data from 217 smallholder livestock farmers were c...

Heartwater is a dangerous tick-borne disease for livestock farmers in South Africa and results in annual economic losses for the livestock industry. This study determined the total economic impact of heartwater in South Africa by calculating this disease's direct and indirect costs. Survey data from 272 livestock farmers from six provinces of South...

Assessing and estimating the total financial implications of predation in the livestock farming sector of South Africa is essential in implementing a national system of coordinated predation management and providing information to aid the livestock production sector. The main objective was to estimate and assess the financial implications of livest...

This research aims to determine the competitiveness of South African agri-food products and the factors that influence them. The study applied a comparative advantage (RCA) index, Lafay Index (LFI), Export Diversification Index (EDI), Major export category (MEC), Hirschman index (HI), and regression analysis. The study revealed a mixed result of RC...

Agricultural drought has put sub-Saharan African under significant pressure, and without adaptation, will negatively influence a future generation. Hence, it is crucial to assess the adaptation and coping strategies, the resilience of agricultural drought, its implication on the sustainability of the livestock sector, and developing future interven...

Selected South African fruit products exports enter the European Union (EU) market under the preferences policy, which includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) embedded in bilateral trade agreements. The rationale for using TRQs is to guarantee and enhance market access. However, unfilled TRQs such as the frozen strawberries TRQ granted to South Africa b...

Analysing and understanding the timber sector export performance is essential for value chain role players to formulate strategies and policies to enhance the competitive export position and ensure forest sustainability. This study's main objective was to measure the export competitiveness of the Namibian timber (HS440799, HS4401, HS4402, and HS440...

Migration is used as a coping and adaptation strategy and can increase migrants' resilience to maintain and expand their livelihoods and survival strategies. Despite the challenges migrants encounter in host environments, they overcome the challenges , cope and adapt. This study explored the socioeconomic coping and adaptation strategies employed b...

This study identified factors affecting livestock farmers’ agricultural drought resilience to food insecurity in Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Data of 217 smallholder livestock farmers were used in a principal component analysis to estimate the agricultural drought resilience index. The structural equation approach was then applied to asses...

Worldwide drought has significance and continues to pose long-lasting effects on the agricultural sector, including South Africa. The recurring drought is a major challenge to smallholder livestock farmers in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. This study assesses the perception of smallholder livestock farmers towards agricultural drought...

Recurring agricultural droughts are of concern to smallholder livestock farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study determined the impact of agricultural drought resilience on smallholder livestock farming households’ welfare in the Frances Baard District Municipality (FBDM), in Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Interviews, more specifically su...

Studies have determined the factors influencing agricultural drought resilience of smallholder farmers and implications for empowerment. Other than the Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI), studies do not provide an analysis of cultural or traditional beliefs and reflective dialogues on challenges of smallholder female live...

Village Banks (VBs) and group credit programs are self-sustainable means, enhancing entrepreneurship with Community Engagement from the inception of the program to achieve the desired results. This chapter looks at the issue of a lack of access to financial systems for the poor and looks into how VBs allow the poor to enhance entrepreneurship throu...

Agriculture has been confronted with a wide range of challenges and sustainable solutions are required to fulfill the growing demands. Precision agriculture technologies, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), are paving the way for agricultural producers to fulfill demands by allowing for more precise input management. This study aimed to...

Döhne Merino sheep are a dual-purpose breed known for both good-quality meat and Merino-type wool. The objective of this study was to determine the price attributes of Döhne Merino wool in South Africa using a hedonic model and data from 83 registered Döhne Merino farmers in South Africa. The results indicated that the price of Fleece wool was most...

The Impact of Wine Grape Harvester on Labour in Western Cape Province of South Africa O’BRIEN JONATHAN PEREL , YONAS T. BAHTA and PETSO MOKHATLA Mechanization and technology in agriculture are becoming more and more evident, not only in developed countries, but also in African countries, and more specifically South Africa. The objectives of the st...

This study focused on the coping strategies that smallholder livestock farmers used in the event of agricultural drought in South Africa. The result revealed that the majority of smallholder farmers sold their livestock, as a coping strategy. Results from the multinomial probit model revealed that the socio-economic and institutional variables infl...

The recent severe drought in South Africa forced the different stakeholders to change the behavior of water users through policy interventions. This paper assesses the impact of policy intervention on irrigation agriculture using a modified IFPRI CGE, SWIP – E model and SAM. The result showed that when water restrictions were set it was more profit...

Agriculture has been confronted with a wide range of challenges and sustainable solutions are required to fulfill the growing demands. Precision Agriculture Technology, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is paving the way for agricultural producers to fulfill demands by allowing more precise input management. This study aimed to evaluate...

The authors have requested that this preprint be withdrawn due to author disagreement.

Integrating best management practices and improving the technical efficiency of smallholder maize farmers is critical in raising overall agricultural output. However, there is not much information, besides marginalization and high rehabilitation and maintenance costs, which adequately explains why productivity of smallholder irrigation farmers drop...

The article analyzes the trade and welfare impacts of the EU’s liberalization of frozen orange juice tariff rate quota (TRQ) exports from South Africa to the EU implemented under the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA). Based on an approach that employs a fill parameter to extrapolate unfilled to filled TRQs in the Global Trade Anal...

The aim of the study was to estimate the financial impact (direct and indirect costs) of livestock theft and to identify different methods farmers used to control stock theft in the Free State Province of South Africa. The study used primary data collected from 292 commercial livestock farmers from the five municipalities of the Free State province...

Livestock theft should be controlled successfully in order to sustain the South African livestock industry. The aim of the study was to estimate the financial impact of and to identify factors affecting sheep and goat theft in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. Primary data was collected from 228 livestock farmers and Probit, Tobit and Tru...

The aim of this study was to determine the factors that influence the resilience of smallholder farming households in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. This study utilised primary data collected from 207 smallholder livestock farmers and the probit model. The study contributes to the existing literature by constructing an agricultural dro...

This article assessed job market perceptions of African migrant women in South Africa as an initial and long-term coping and adaptation mechanism using a survey data, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and Pearson’s chi-square. A questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic, socio-economic characteristics and socio-economic coping and ad...

The aims of this paper is to review and outline arguments underlying the failures of emerging agricultural cooperatives, investigating the foundation of the implemented strategies and their outcomes in South Africa. Finally and most importantly, to compare international literature on the success and significance of collective entrepreneurship world...

Pumpkin is a source of protein and fat and is a product of homestead gardens. The homestead food garden programme was established in 1997 as one of the projects identified by the government of South Africa to alleviate hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity in vulnerable households. The objective of this study was to identify the challenges and...

Given the significance of maize within the overall food security strategies in Sub- Saharan Africa including South Africa, it is important to analyse the technical efficiency of the maize industry for the overall development of the economy. This article analyzes the impact of labor productivity, import price of the world, research and development o...

Recurring drought is a major challenge to smaller holder livestock farmers. This study estimates agricultural drought resilience of smallholder livestock farms in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. This study utilized primary data collected from 207 smallholder livestock farmers and an agricultural drought resilience index (ADRI). The resu...

The paper investigates if two groups of smallholder sheep farmers who farm using communal grazing land in the N8 development corridor of South Africa can be treated in a homogenous manner. Heterogeneous production environments should result in different production responses, which are unique to the production region. A better understanding of these...

This article assesses the socio-economic coping and adaptation mechanisms employed by sub-Saharan African migrant women in South Africa using a survey and multi-attribute contingent ratings. The socio-economic and adaptation mechanisms were identified using a sustainable livelihood framework, which included political and cultural capital. This stud...

In this article, we assess how a homestead food garden intervention influences the income of participating vegetable farmers in South Africa. The findings show that there is a significant improvement in the income of these farmers. Specifically, the participating vegetable farmers observed an increment in their gross margins of between 39.28% and 4...

In this paper tariff rate quota (TRQ) fruit products are analysed as representative sectors in a Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) static model to establish impacts on trade and welfare. Simulations are carried out to remove EU tariffs on fruit products, non-tariff measures (NTMs) and other influential factor...

Estimation of ecological drought vulnerability indicators is the important step for drought mitigation management. This article identified and estimated ecological drought vulnerability indicators among communal farmers in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, using an ecological vulnerability index based on a household survey of 121 communal...

Estimation of ecological drought vulnerability indicators is the important step for drought mitigation management. This article identified and estimated ecological drought vulnerability indicators among communal farmers in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, using an ecological vulnerability index based on a household survey of 121 communal...

Agriculture is a backbone for the overall development of Africa. It is widely acknowledged that the small-scale farmers need empowerment through extension services to achieve the National Development Plan of South Africa. The aim of this paper is to improve the understanding of different role players on the concept of agricultural extension service...

This article determines the extent to which the food insecurity status of women in South Africa can be reduced by participating in gardening around the homestead, using survey data from 207 women farmers. A household food insecurity average score index and an empirical model that accounts for observed and unobserved factors contributing to food ins...

This article reports on a study that aimed to assess the impact of the 2015 drought in South Africa on commercial livestock producers, with specific reference to the associated drought adoption strategies. The study was based on primary data collected from 350 commercial livestock producers from seven different provinces. The findings revealed that...

This paper examines the determinants of participation in homestead food garden programmes and its impact on productivity and net returns of smallholder maize producers in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The paper further establishes the nexus between land ownership and outputs from homestead food garden programmes. The data was obtained from...

The South African government has implemented homestead food garden (HFG) programmes directed at enhancing food production in order to reduce food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty and hunger. The present paper evaluated the impact of this programme on household food insecurity using surveys of 500 households. Endogenous switching regression, propen...

This article identifies and estimates economic drought vulnerability indicators among communal farmers in South Africa, using an economic vulnerability index based on a household survey of 121 communal farmers. The results show that lack of resources, unemployment, price sensitivity, market access, the level of farm debt, output, on- and off-farm d...

Even though the significance of indigenous knowledge in agriculture is internationally recognised, the role thereof in disaster risk reduction in South Africa is not well documented. This article determined the influence of indigenous knowledge in drought risk reduction in O.R. Tambo district of the Eastern Cape province (South Africa). Primary dat...

Rainwater harvesting techniques are required to obtain a sustainable supplemental water source for groundwater, which is being depleted through time in arid and semi-arid countries including Eritrea. The aim of this study was to examine the factors that influence farmers' decisions to adopt rainwater harvesting techniques in Central Province (Zoba...

The aim of this article was to assess and identify social vulnerability of communal farmers to drought in the O.R. Tambo district in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa using a survey data and social vulnerability index (SoVI). Eleven social vulnerability indicators were identified using Bogardi, Birkman and Cardona conceptual framework. The...

This paper determines the factors that influence communal farmers' choice of coping strategies to sustain productivity during drought and to determine current adaptation and coping capacities for drought risk in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa using field surveys, structured and semi-structured interviews and a multinomial probit model. T...