The agricultural economy of South Africa is divided into two sections - large agro-industrial commercial farmers who grow food for profit and often for export, and small-scale farmers who grow food for their own consumption. There is a huge gap in between these two categories that could be filled by emerging farmers who grow food not just to eat, but to sell and earn an income and even to create jobs. There are roughly 3 million small-scale farmers in South Africa who produce food primarily to feed their families, and 240 000 black commercially oriented farmers that not only feed their families, but also provide jobs for 500 000 people. The small-scale farmers practice subsistence production or smallholder production which increases food supplies and thus cushion households from food price shocks, thereby improving household food security. It also improves human health since eating fresh vegetables has many nutrients and vitamins. If these farmers could expand their operations and grow more, they could generate a cash income. However, they face many challenges in their attempts to expand, most importantly, the poor quality of the land that they live on and the lack of seeds, water, mechanical interventions like tractors, and transport to get their extra products to the market. If they had these inputs, they could become the foundation of the country's emerging commercial farming class.

While in the past rural households produced most of their own food, this has changed and there is an increasing dependence on market purchases so that food expenditures can account for as much as 60-80% of total household income for low-income households. Smallholder agriculture can play an important role in reducing the vulnerability of rural food-insecure households, improving livelihoods, and helping to overcome high food price inflation. There is a need to significantly increase the productivity of smallholder agriculture and ensure long-term food security. This can be achieved by encouraging farmers to pursue sustainable intensification of production through the use of improved inputs.

South Africa’s poor, rural families are ready to move away from dependence on social welfare and develop small farming businesses to alleviate food insecurity and create jobs. Subsistence production reduces household food costs but some trading is inevitably necessary to satisfy all food and non-food needs. Emerging farmers are inherently small – small land sizes and diverse production modes – making survival difficult in the modern agriculture economy. Even though smallholder farmers ensure that there is food on the table, they need to become more productive to increase their outputs and yields. They need support to take up farming methods that improve their crops. There are many initiatives to assist the improvement in the technical aspects of farming – vaccine research, extension services, and agricultural training colleges and they need to be linked to rural development.

A lack of support for small holder agriculture and subsistence farmers means they have no way to gain entry into the food value chains — the bureaucracy involved in becoming an approved supplier to a supermarket, for example, is too complicated and costly for small farmers. There are usually three common marketing destinations for smallholder farmers: fresh produce markets, informal markets and supermarket chains. Government initiatives are acknowledged as the most inclusive, but not necessarily the most effective at integrating smallholder farmers into value chains.