ABSTRACT
South Africa has a dualistic agricultural economy, comprising of a well-developed commercial sector and a predominantly subsistence-orientated small-scale sector. Agriculture is divided between approximately 46 000 commercial farmers and 2.5 million emerging or developing' farmer households. This Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) report specifically analysed the vegetable and dairy industries of South Africa and the issue of the emerging sector in these industries. Emerging farmers are not emerging fast enough in South Africa. This is because of the weaknesses of small-scale producers as suppliers to the modern food system on the one hand and the high degree of competition on the other. It will be a long time before the dominance of large-scale farms in food supply to the modern system is significantly challenged. Nevertheless, farmers are emerging with government and private sector support. The best way to help them seems to be to train and finance them to supply wholesale markets in the big cities first.
