India, April 13 -- South Africa's small-scale farmers remain reliant on chemical fertilisers despite knowing their environmental harms.

Access to rhizobia-based biological fertilisers is limited and certain government programmes supply free synthetic inputs.

Poor awareness of the benefits and application of alternatives also found to be a hurdle.

Sustainable alternatives can restore soil health and boost legume and non-legume yields.

The growing use of toxic agricultural chemicals including fertilisers is also driving a scaling up of sustainable agrochemical alternatives.

In South Africa, I've been exploring why small-scale farmers resist switching to these more cost-effective and environmentally friendly solutions, such as "biologic...