Diversification has been increasingly recognized as a rewarding farm strategy through which farmers produce on-farm non-agricultural goods and services. In doing so, farmers employ farm inputs (capital, labor, and land) in products other than agricultural goods, with the aim to sell them in the market and increase their income. While a significant body of literature has explored the drivers affecting the adoption of diversification activities, so far little attention has been given to the impact of such adoption on the technical and financial performance of farms.

As rural poverty deepens over much of Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder transformation has become more urgent than ever before. A majority of rural people derive their livelihoods from agriculture, hence the urgent need for transforming the sector. The South African government launched a comprehensive land reform programme at the dawn of democracy in the country on the assumption that constraints on land size would be eliminated to make room for a more inclusive agricultural economy.

The use of anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) as a soil conditioner could help prevent soil loss by water. In this study, we determined the effective granular PAM rate that best reduces runoff and soil loss from Oxisols. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the selected PAM rate was tested by applying it in a mixture with gypsum (G) or lime (L).