Abstract:
The Covid-19 pandemic has been reported to have disrupted the supply chain of
broiler chickens and food systems globally and negatively affecting the production of
agricultural commodities. Poultry farming is a significant source of revenue generation
for smallholder producers in developing countries. It plays a vital role in fulfilling the
daily protein requirements of humans through meat consumption. This study was
carried out to analyse the economic impact of Covid-19 on smallholder broiler
producers in Vhembe District Municipality of Limpopo province in South Africa. This
study adopted a quantitative research method. A simple random sampling technique
was used to select the respondents of the study. Data was collected from a sample of
180 smallholder broiler producers through a structured questionnaire. Descriptive
statistics was used to analyse and describe socio-economic and demographic
characteristics of the respondents. Stochastic frontier production function was
employed to determine factors influencing productivity among smallholder broiler
producers in Vhembe district municipality. Data analysis on the economic impact of
Covid-19 on smallholder broiler producers was done by Microsoft excel. Furthermore,
to assess the support services provided by the government to smallholder broiler
producers, descriptive statistics was used. The results of the study showed that
majority of smallholder broiler producers were females (52.2%). The dominating age
group for this study accounted for 41.1% of the respondents and were between the
ages of 36 and 45 years. The majority of the respondents in the study area were found
to have 6 to 9 years of farming experience (49.4%). Smallholder broiler producers with
secondary level of education constituted 43% of the respondents. The results on the
factors influencing productivity revealed that labour and feed cost had a positive
relationship with productivity both at 1% level of significance. Vaccines were found to
have a negative relationship with productivity at 5% significance level. Farming
experience and access to extension services was found to have a positive relationship
with efficiency. Gender and age were found to be negatively associated with technical
efficiency. The study also discovered that majority of smallholder broiler producers,
accounting for 67.2%, were negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Although
there were funds provided by the government in a form of grants to help small
businesses during the pandemic, the study found that only 39.4% of the respondents
benefited from the funds. About 36.7% of the respondents received support through
training and information provision. Smallholder broiler producers experienced a
decrease in stocking density and decreased income. Based on the findings, the study
recommends a partnership between relevant stakeholders such as SAPA to come up
with low-cost ingredient feeds as a way to reduce cost of feeds, as this is generally the
highest cost incurred in poultry production.
