Abstract

Small-scale commercial farming has been recognised as a congruent strategy for local economic development. However, there are entrepreneurial challenges that are aggravated by the state of the economy, natural factors and weak agrarian edification system limiting growth in this sector. Therefore, the paper assessed the challenges and entrepreneurial constraints faced by small-scale commercial farmers in rural areas of South Africa. Multiple stage sampling technique was used to select 217 smallscale commercial farmers. Quantitative data were collected through a survey in which structured questionnaires were used. IMB SPPS version 26 and Microsoft Excel version 2016 software were used as data analysis tools. Friedman means ranking technique was used to categorize the challenges in ascending order. Pearson chi-square was used to determine the relationship between the variables. The computed results revealed that financial, water, access to the market, crops and animal diseases challenges are the most prevalent. Subsequently, financial management, marketing, packaging, cross-breeding and human management skills are lacking from these farmers, hence the challenges. Based on the results of this investigation, the paper recommends that the establishment of training programmers to improve entrepreneurship skills should be offered to these farmers, depending on the type of farming.