Assessing the effectiveness of government-funded smallholder development projects in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: the case of the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality

Agricultural development projects are used by governments of countries as a strategy for community development and job creation. In the developing countries, agricultural projects are the leading edge of rural development. These development projects however require huge capital outlay from governments. There are evidences in literature which report that in developing countries huge sums of money are being lost through agricultural projects that end up failing, and South Africa’s government is no exception to this trend. In South Africa, particularly in the province of the Eastern Cape, agricultural development projects are implemented through the existing participation between farmers and extension officers under government programme. The records of these agricultural development projects in the Eastern Cape province is mixed, whilst some succeed, most also fail to achieve their goals. This paper assessed the cause of why South African government funded agricultural project fail in the province of the Eastern Cape, particularly in the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality. The overall results of this study revealed that about 54.9% of the projects that the respondents were involved in have failed. This study identified the top five factors that for failure of the government funded agricultural projects. They are Supervision, Communication, Monitoring, Political interference and Commitment to project respectively. Government funded agricultural projects in the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality registered some minimal impact therefore discouraging and decreasing willingness of farmers or communities to participate in government funded projects. In the area under study most of agricultural projects failed to achieve objectives and collapsed.  Others are struggling to survive and become sustainable.