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Looking outside the University arena, other stakeholders suggested the additional content that would be valuable for organic farming training:
Production process for organic products
Community awareness of, and consumer behaviour towards, organic products
Recycling process, including waste, leaves, grass, kitchen waste, fruit, vegetables, woody material and paper
Management of organic farms and gardens
Funding and support for organic agriculture
Research on NGO and Government involvement in organic agriculture
Research on policy implementation for organic agriculture
Research on environmental factors and sustainable agriculture
Business and marketing of organic products
Distribution channels for organic products
Control for food safety involving Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)
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acceptance by academic staff who are supposed to promote it. They suggested that the problem could be that there is no one specialized in organic farming willing to offer the course, or that possibly it has simply been ignored as part of the curriculum at UKZN.
Seventeen percent (17%) of the respondents identified the fact that organic farming is not yet competitive. There is not yet enough research in organic farming and there is uncertainty or fear of a drastic decline in yield, should there be a shift from conventional to organic farming.
People are not willing to adopt new methods, they resist change and some of them are not sensitive to environmental factors.
Twenty percent (20%) identified productivity as another major problem. Organic farming produces very limited yields, while many producers are looking at high yields to earn a reasonable marginal return (profit). They respond positively to the very high demand for food, a demand which keeps growing at an exponential rate.
4.8.2 Stumbling blocks identified by lecturers
Sixty-five percent (65%) of the lecturer respondents said the problem is that, on the ground, farmers have difficulty accepting organic farming as a reliable practice. They believe it leads to low yield and it is not viewed to be viable on a commercial scale. Farmers are driven by economics and this influences the University to concentrate on conventional commercial production. This is reinforced by the fact that most of the funding for research comes from the industries dealing with commercial/conventional farming.
Twenty percent (20%) pointed out that there is not enough awareness of organic farming.
Little literature is available. There are no qualified or skilled staff in this field. Together these comprise a significant challenge.
Fifteen percent (15%) stated that students often choose study areas that they believe will open doors for job opportunities when they complete their studies. Without big companies working with organic farming, students will not be attracted to organic agriculture.
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4.8.3 Stumbling blocks identified by other stakeholders
The following stakeholders were visited: Rainman Land Care Foundation, Wizzardworms, Woolworths, Pick n’ Pay, Weston Agricultural College, Cedara Agricultural College, Dovehouse and the School of Education at UKZN. The perceived problems or stumbling blocks regarding the organic farming industry were formulated in different ways, depending on the particular stakeholders’ place in organic farming. However, there was a great deal of commonality of thought among these stakeholders. Table 4.17 sets out the key issues raised by these stakeholders. The issues fall into five categories:
Academic resistance
Limited awareness
Farm management challenges
Retailing challenges
Policy challenges and common opinion
Table 4.17: Key challenges to organic farming identified by other stakeholders Academic resistance
UKZN has been focused on commercial farming because of lack of expertise on organic farming by lecturers
There is no interest from the University
Academics are reluctant
Some academic say that it is unscientific
Academics believe that organic farming does not provide high yields to feed people and is unreliable
Limited awareness
There are many uneducated customers; lack of knowledge among customers; many customers are not informed about the product; there is less awareness by
consumers, rendering the product unknown
Researchers' culture is anti-organic; they do not realize the opportunity given by this field of agriculture; scientists are not aware of research results
Farm management challenges
Access to markets
Difficulties in achieving production standards
Hard work involved to farm correctly
A lot of work involved
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Too much variation in stock supplied
Uncertainty on market
Customers complain that prices of organic prices are too high (this discourages sales)
Business people working with organic products fear the unknown from a commercial point of view
Policy challenges and common opinion
There is no support from government
Policies do not put emphasis on organic farming
Bias in terms of job opportunities and funding encourages the training of researchers for conventional farming companies
General belief that organic farming cannot address food security issues
Academic resistance: Stakeholders believed that academic institutions (including UKZN) have been concentrating on commercial farming because of lack of expertise by lecturers in organic farming. They indicated that the lack of expertise is mostly attributed to the persistent view that ‘organic’ is unscientific, leading to their reluctance to look at it seriously. The belief on the part of academics that organic farming does not provide more yields to feed people was cited as another reason why the University is not very interested in organic farming training.
Limited awareness: Stakeholders felt that many people are still not aware of organic products.
This is reinforced by the lack of education of many consumers, which leads to consumers not understanding organic products as being different from conventional farming products.
Stakeholders added that training for many researchers has been supported by chemical companies, where the expertise is; as a result the culture of researchers is anti-organic and they do not realize the opportunity and potential presented by organic farming.
Farm management challenges: Stakeholders indicated that it is not easy to access and successfully penetrate organic markets, because of competition with conventional farming products and lack of awareness. There are other challenges concerning achieving production standards required by consumers. The whole process involves a lot of work – people must work very hard to get a good result.
The research found that current organic producers struggled to make profits, due to limited sales which were, in turn, affected by the high prices of organic products. Consumers are
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hesitant to pay more for organic products. Although this was expressed as an issue of awareness, it can also be seen as an indication that the organic producers need to take matters more directly in hand and develop and implement a strong marketing strategy to change consumer views so that they will buy the higher-priced organic products. These stakeholders seemed to want the State to take the lead in what is actually their own work. While it is useful to have government support for organic farming, the farmers themselves are running businesses with products that need to be marketed.
Retailing challenges: Stakeholders pointed out that retailers dealing with organic products are working in uncertainty and fear, as they cannot predict stock availability. There is too much variation in the stock supplied. In addition, they indicated that the price for organic products is still high compared to their conventional substitutes on the market. This discourages consumers from buying.
Policy challenges and common opinion: Stakeholders stated that the organic industry is not progressing because there is no support from government and the policies do not put emphasis on it. As a result, the industry is crumbling. Another challenge raised was related to job opportunities; currently there are fewer job opportunities in the organic product value chain than in the conventional product value chain. Government’s focus is more on chemical companies, where more funding is available and training encouraged. The stakeholders felt that this occurred because many people assume that organic farming cannot solve food security issues or feed the world.