4.2 Economy Of Scale Conceptualization

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4. Conceptualisation

4.1 Food security: A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.(UNDP, 2007:27)

4.2 Economy of scale concept is used in this Research as the cost advantage that arises with increased output of a product. The concept refers to the situation in which the cost of producing on additional unit of output of a product is minimal. It is of utmost importance for this thesis to unpack the concept of economies of scale because they can be an important factor in determining the optimal and decreases as the volume of output increases.

4.3 Livelihoods refer …show more content…

(Potter et al,2012 : 129) state that development has frequently been conceptualised as a fundamentally technical issue such as the importance of local level histories, geographies and sociocultural in understanding community level development, as well as the need for a more explicit acknowledgement of indigenous knowledge as a valid body of knowledge.(Potter et al,2012 :110) further argue that progressive alternatives to Neoliberalism will be a hard sell in today’s geopolitical discourses that have been ideologically created and distorted by several decades of cumulatively entrenched neoliberalisation, however (Thiele 2013:166) argues that the theory of comparative advantage appears to favour big business, as economies of scale allow for greater efficiencies in production and therefore low costs.( Thiele 2013:166) further highlights that more resources are required when small, local business produced goods and services, sustainability is not well served by localizing. According to (Thiele 2013:166) economies of scale should be considered and it would not be a good idea for every community to build and run its own windmill factory. Likewise as argued by (Thiele …show more content…

The New Growth Path (NGP) supports the promotion of commercially orientated small –scale farming towards sustainability, and highlights agro-processing’s role with respect to job creation and food security. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s (DRDLR) Comprehensive Rural Development Plan (CRDP) is aimed at developing enterprises and establishing village industries, whilst also unlocking access to basic needs provision and credit facilities within rural communities such as Vhembe region. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF’s) Strategic Plan (2012/13-2016/17) aims to address food security, support smallholder producers and highlights an Agro-processing Strategic Framework (with job creation potential). Vhembe as a rural region provides an interesting site for thinking about. The work of Peberdy (2000); Meagher (2003); Peberdy and Rogerson (2003) is useful for thinking about such connections as they relate to ordinary people’s livelihood activities. These kinds of discussions link with the work of scholars such as Malaquais (2007) and Ferguson (1999) on ordinary people’s activities in Doulas, Zambia Copper area as well as in Cameroon are useful for the study to take into consideration ordinary persons as they

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