THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE 4IR TECHNOLOGIES IN ELEVATING SMALL-SCALE FARMING AT KWADLANGEZWA, KWAZULU NATAL IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

With the emergence of new technologies from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Industrial Revolutions, the productivity increase of agricultural and farming activities has been crucial to increasing yields and cost-effectiveness. Prior studies on the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) have focused on agricultural technologies but have ignored small-scale farmers. Before adopting the 4IR, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the agricultural challenges facing small-scale farmers. This work employed semi-structured interviews and a qualitative research methodology in which a literature analysis was conducted; it also described the occurrences of the aforementioned agricultural instruments. From the sample of 28 individuals, 86 percent were interviewed face-to-face, and 14 percent were interviewed through telephone. Seven percent of commercial and ninety-three percent of small-scale farmers were of African descent. The study employed discourse analysis to examine and analyze the spoken words and written texts to reveal the conversational sources of power, inequality, and bias from various farmer encounters. The study found that small-scale farmers lacked access to markets, capital, technology, and agricultural information and relied only on word of mouth. Further, the study investigated the ramifications of 4IR tools merging with small-scale farmers while underlining the importance of integrating modern 4IR technologies in agriculture while solving current issues. In Kwadlangezwa, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, this contributed to the identification and prioritization of the requirements of small-scale farmers, as well as the validation of the 4IR tools by the participants.