Insights into Regional Development

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Received: 2025-11-18 | Accepted: 2026-02-24 | Published: 2026-03-30

Title

Advancing local economic development through agricultural support initiatives

Abstract

Agriculture is a vital activity that drives the local economy. This study explores agricultural support in South Africa. This research focuses on initiatives local governments take to bolster agriculture and promote economic growth, recognising that agriculture plays a crucial role in the financial foundation of rural communities. There is slow growth in the local agricultural sector in most rural settlements due to inadequate support from local authorities. Specifically, the study aims to explore and strengthen agricultural support in the Mnquma local municipality area by examining existing local economic development strategy initiatives, particularly those related to agriculture, and then empowering these initiatives to fully support rural settlements. The study employed a mixed approach with stratified random sampling to collect data. The sample size was limited to 68 rural farmers in the Mnquma local municipality area, specifically wards 24, 25, 26, and 27. The questionnaire responses included 77 rural farmers plus one agricultural and forestry officer in the Local Economic Development unit, making the total sample size 78 for the study. The data were analysed both statistically and qualitatively using SPSS and Atlas. Ti. The findings demonstrate that current support initiatives are practical and beneficial to rural farming, as indicated by the high level of satisfaction reported by rural farmers regarding the assistance provided by the municipality. The main issue is the lack of constant support, innovation, and adequate funding from the city for rural farmers. The study recommended a list of solutions to combat these challenges, such as increasing the number of supported farmers annually, increasing the budget for the agriculture and forestry office, standardising innovation and skillset in the agriculture and forestry office in Mnquma local municipality to maximise support, maximising monitoring procedures, accountability, transparency and intergovernmental collaborations.

Keywords

local economic development, rural agriculture, rural municipalities, Eastern Cape, South Africa

JEL classifications

O10 , O13 , H25

URI

http://jssidoi.org/ird/article/241

DOI

DOI 10.70132/p5696977889

Pages

105-119

Funding

This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Authors

Masondo, Njabulo

Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa https://www.wsu.ac.za

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Lukman, Yusuf

Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa https://www.wsu.ac.za

Articles by this author in: CrossRef | Google Scholar

Journal title

Insights into Regional Development

Volume

Number

Issue date

March 2026

Issue DOI

DOI 10.70132/c4967459363

ISSN

ISSN 2345-0282 (online)

Publisher

VšĮ Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, Vilnius, Lithuania

Cited

Article views & downloads

HTML views: 451 | PDF downloads: 395

References

Ababio, E. P., & Meyer, D. F. 2012. Local Economic Development (LED): Building blocks, strategy and implementation for local government in South Africa. Administratio Publica, 20(4), 6-27. https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/ejc-adminpub-v20-n4-a2