Perceptions of Smallholder Farmers' Access to Entrepreneurial Skills Training in the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality, Free State Province, South Africa

Danisile Leonah Mthombeni; Tulisiwe Pilisiwe Mbombo-Dweba; Tsakani Permlar Tshimbana

doi:10.17306/j.jard.2026.1.00006r1

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Perceptions of Smallholder Farmers' Access to Entrepreneurial Skills Training in the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality, Free State Province, South Africa

Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development

Volume 79 (2026): Issue 1 (February 2026)

By: Danisile Leonah Mthombeni , Tulisiwe Pilisiwe Mbombo-Dweba and Tsakani Permlar Tshimbana

Open Access

|Mar 2026

Figures & Tables

Map of Thabo Mofutsanyana District MunicipalitySource: Municipalites.co.za, 2025.

Scree plot for the rotated component matrixSource: own elaboration.

KMO and Bartlett's test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy		0.821
Bartlett's test of sphericity	Approx. Chi-square	508.90
	df	66
	Sig.	< 0.001

Explanatory total variance

No.	Initial eigenvalues			Extraction sums of squared loadings			Rotation sums of squared loadings

	total	% of var.	cumul. %	total	% of var.	cumul. %	total	% of var.	cumul. %
X₇	4.215	35.121	35.121	4.215	35.121	35.121	3.281	27.340	27.340
X₆	1.433	11.943	47.064	1.433	11.943	47.064	2.337	19.472	46.812
X₈	1.185	9.871	56.935	1.185	9.871	56.935	1.215	10.123	56.935
X₄	0.934	7.783	64.718
X₅	0.901	7.511	72.228
X₉	0.632	5.266	77.494
X₁₁	0.595	4.956	82.450
X₃	0.526	4.387	86.837
X₁₂	0.510	4.254	91.091
X₁₀	0.456	3.803	94.894
X₂	0.335	2.794	97.688
X₁	0.277	2.312	100.000

ANOVA

Model	Sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.
Regression	62.647	3	20.882	32.004	< 0.001
Residual	92.002	141	0.652
Total	154.648	144

Rotated component matrix

Questions/statement	Component 1	Component 2	Component 3
Do you have access to literacy skill training?	0.759	0.198
Do you have access to production training?	0.833		0.137
The adoption of skills improved the farming business.	0.593	0.366	0.270
Do you have access to financial skills training?	0.752	0.147	−0.141
Do you have access to marketing skills training?	0.759	0.129
Is there a use for technology in the farming business?	0.334	0.693	0.121
Do you have access to high value/commercial markets?	0.206	0.761
Do you have access to entrepreneurial training?	0.507	0.272	−0.309
Are the extension services effective to your farming business?	−0.105	0.422	0.507
Do you have access to finance?	0.114	0.768
Is it important to apply entrepreneurial skills?	0.152		0.750
Have you adopted and applied entrepreneurial skills?	0.245	0.467	−0.401

Regression analyses of the PCA factors

Unstandardised coefficients			Standardised coefficients

Variables	B	Std. error	Beta	t	Sig.
Constant	0.120	0.393	0.305	0.761
Mean access to literacy training	−2.804	0.850	−1.592	−3.300	0.001*
Mean access to production skills training	2.442	0.627	1.455	3.892	< 0.001*
Mean adoption of skills to improve farm business	1.375	0.354	0.778	3.886	< 0.001*

Sample size of smallholder farmers in the study area

	Local municipality	Smallholder	Sample per local municipality
1	Dihlabeng Local Municipality	21	(21/251) × 145 = 12
2	Setsoto Local Municipality	06	(6/251 × 145 = 3.5
3	Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality	183	(183/251) × 145 = 106
4	Phumelela Local Municipality	23	(23/251) × 145 = 13
5	Mantsopa Local Municipality	12	(12/251) × 145 = 7
6	Nketoana Local Municipality	6	(6/251) × 145 = 3.5

Total		251	Sample size = 145

Five-point Likert scale percentage ratings

No.	Questions/statement	SA	A	N	D	SD
X₁	Have you adopted and applied entrepreneurial skills?	5.6%	11.7%	20%	51.7%	11%
X₂	Is it important to apply entrepreneurial skills?	26.9%	62.1%	3.4%	4.8%	2.8%
X₃	Do you have access to entrepreneurial training?	13.1%	31%	31.7%	21.4%	2.8%
X₄	Do you have access to financial skills training?	15.2%	26.9%	34.5%	19.3%	4.1%
X₅	Do you have access to marketing skills training?	13.1%	29%	33.8%	24.1%	0%
X₆	Do you have access to production training?	11.7%	33.1%	23.4%	24.8%	6.9%
X₇	Do you have access to literacy skills training	17.2%	30.3%	24.1%	27.6%	0.7%
X₈	The adoption of skills improved the farming business.	15.2%	22.1%	33.8	29%	0%
X₉	Is there a use for technology in the farming business?	12.4%	24.8%	26.2%	33.1%	3.4%
X₁₀	Do you have access to finance?	6.2%	16.6%	35.9%	40.7%	0.7%
X₁₁	Do you have access to high-value/commercial markets?	6.9%	26.2%	25.5%	39.3%	2.1%%
X₁₂	Are the extension services effective for your farming business?	24.8%	44.8%	15.2%	12.4%	2.8%

References

Authors

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17306/j.jard.2026.1.00006r1 | Journal eISSN: 1899-5772 | Journal ISSN: 1899-5241

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Language: English

Page range: 93 - 102

Accepted on: Mar 30, 2026

Published on: Mar 30, 2026

Published by: The University of Life Sciences in Poznań

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

Keywords:

entrepreneurial skills,

small-scale farmers,

training,

Principal Component Analysis,

agri-entrepreneurship

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Political economics, other,

Business management,

Business management, other,

Life sciences,

Life sciences, other,

Social sciences,

Political science,

Political science, other

© 2026 Danisile Leonah Mthombeni, Tulisiwe Pilisiwe Mbombo-Dweba, Tsakani Permlar Tshimbana, published by The University of Life Sciences in Poznań
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 79 (2026): Issue 1 (February 2026)

Perceptions of Smallholder Farmers' Access to Entrepreneurial Skills Training in the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality, Free State Province, South Africa

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

KMO and Bartlett's test

Explanatory total variance

ANOVA

Rotated component matrix

Regression analyses of the PCA factors

Sample size of smallholder farmers in the study area

Five-point Likert scale percentage ratings

Paradigm

My account