Vol. 8(12), pp. 1077-1085, 4 April, 2013 DOI: 10.5897/AJAR12.576 ISSN 1991-637X ©2013 Academic Journals http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR African Journal of Agricultural Research Full Length Research Paper An assessment of support provided to smallholder farmers: A case study of the Vhembe District, South Africa Phineas Khazamula Chauke*, Thizwilondi Dennis Nekhavhambe and Tichaona Kudakwashe Pfumayaramba The School of Agriculture, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, 0950, South Africa. Accepted 18 February, 2013 This paper assesses some support strategies provided to randomly selected smallholder irrigation farmers in Vhembe District, South Africa. Although irrigation farmers were selected as units of study, the focus is on all smallholder farmers. In particular the study investigates the extent to which smallholder farmers benefited from the new government policy of redressing injustices in South Africa by providing support to the previously disadvantaged in the country’s rural areas. The study established the dominance of men and the elderly, less educated members, poor access to credit, non- membership to cooperatives, and substantial access to irregular extension services, and dependence on other farmers for market information. Inferential statistical analyses detected a negative impact of educational achievement and investment in production costs (inputs) to accessing credit. Amongst others the study recommended planned exit strategies for elderly farmers, support to new entrants (graduates), exposure to beneficial effects of cooperation and dependence on traditional market information sources, rather than ill-informed colleagues in the smallholder farming sector. Key words: Support, smallholder farmers, extension, cooperative, credit, market information, production inputs. INTRODUCTION Failure of large-scale farming to address the plight of the rural poor and thus to bring about anticipated development shifted the policy agendas of many developing countries to supporting the smallholder farming sector, particularly in the 1980s to 1990s. One of the first African countries that made a swift shift from a focus on the former was Ghana, in response to observations that rather than benefitting the rural masses, large scale farming ended up accruing benefits to fewer rich commercial farmers and bureaucrats (Torah, 2001). At independence in 1994, the government of South Africa was faced with massive challenges of redressing inequalities within the country‟s rural landscape following many years of apartheid-based policies. In particular support to the white commercial farming sector occurred within an environment in which unsupported black dominated subsistence farming characterized the heavily congested communally-based homeland areas. Redressing inequalities entailed concerted efforts at the formulation of policies that would transfer effective support to the black small-scale farming sector, including those that are the focus of this study *Corresponding author. E-mail: peakay@univen.ac.za. Tel: +2715 962 8260.