Funding and support programmes for small-scale maize farmers: effects on global value chain participation in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

This study examines how funding and institutional support programmes influence small-scale maize farmers' participation in global value chains (GVCs) in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. While maize is vital for food security and rural livelihoods, many smallholders remain limited to subsistence and informal markets due to limited financial resources, poor infrastructure, and institutional inefficiencies. Using a descriptive approach and data from 200 farmers across five districts in the Eastern Cape, the research investigates awareness of funding opportunities, access to support programmes, cooperative involvement, market barriers, and production outcomes. In addition to descriptive statistics, a binary logistic regression model was estimated using Stata to assess the determinants of farmers’ participation in GVCs. Results show that 65.8% of funded farmers report increased production; however, obstacles such as complex application procedures, eligibility criteria, weak cooperative support, and the lack of export licensing continue to restrict market access and participation in GVCs. The regression findings indicate that education has a positive and statistically significant effect on participation in GVC, while variables such as cooperative membership and awareness of funding programmes were also significant. Other factors, including marital status, gender, age, cooperative assistance, and accessibility of funding processes, were not statistically significant predictors of participation. A correlation analysis was also conducted to examine the relationships between the variables used in the study. Market challenges mainly arise from limited buyer connections (50%) and low bargaining power (39%), reflecting broader institutional flaws. The study concludes that fragmented support systems and dependence on government grants weaken long-term competitiveness and recommends comprehensive financial, technical, and infrastructural strategies to enhance farmers’ capabilities and support GVC upgrading. Overall, the findings highlight the need for diverse funding sources, stronger cooperative governance, simplified administrative procedures, and targeted export-readiness programmes.