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Agroforestry is a land-use system that includes the use of woody perennial, agricultural crops, and animals in combination to achieve beneficial ecological and economical interactions for food, fiber, and livestock production. However, limited understanding, incorrect information, and a negative mindset could hinder the competitiveness of this practice. This case study of agrosilviculture community growers attempts to explain the grower’s constraints to agroforestry competitiveness by analyzing their agroforestry perception. Hence, the study was aimed to document grower’s perception on the constraints to agroforestry competitiveness in Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces. Quantitative and qualitative designs were used as a questionnaire written in English, and stakeholder’s discussion and field observations were part of the data collection. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 182 agrosilviculture community growers from 30 villages. Data was coded, captured, and analyzed using SPSS. The results indicated that the production factors, demand conditions, related and supporting industries, government support, chance, and quite a few community growers indicated that the market was causing a decrease in agroforestry competitiveness as the majority of growers strongly agreed and agreed respectively. The results further indicated that firm strategy, structure, and rivalry were not causing a decrease in agroforestry competitiveness as the majority of growers strongly disagreed and disagreed. In conclusion, identified community growers’ perceptions are in line with some of the researcher’s field observations, and it is thus recommended that stakeholders should take note of the constraints identified by the agrosilviculture community growers in an attempt to increase agroforestry competitiveness in South Africa.

Fusarium circinatum, the causal agent of pitch canker, was first reported in South Africa in 1990 on Pinus patula seedlings in a nursery. Subsequent to this outbreak the pathogen has spread throughout South African pine nurseries causing a serious root and collar rot disease of various Pinus spp. The stem canker disease on plantation trees that typifies pitch canker in other parts of the world has never been observed in South Africa. An outbreak of a serious disease with symptoms resembling those of pitch canker on 5- and 9-year-old P. radiata in the Western Cape Province, prompted a study to determine the causal agent. Besides having stem cankers exuding copious amounts of resin, dying trees were infested by the weevil, Pissodes nemorensis. Isolations were thus made from infected tissue, weevil galleries and from adult insects. A Fusarium sp. was consistently isolated from both pine tissue and insects. The fungus was characterised based on morphological features and using DNAsequence comparisons for the genes encoding translation elongation factor 1-α and β-tubulin. These studies showed conclusively that the fungus represents the pitch canker fungus, F. circinatum. Three isolates from trees in the affected area were inoculated onto P. radiata seedlings and their ability to cause disease was thus evaluated. Three weeks after inoculation, die-back symptoms were recorded on all inoculated plants. This report represents the first outbreak of pitch canker on plantation trees in South Africa. The fungus can thus no longer be considered only as a nursery pathogen in the country, where it seriously threatens the future of plantation forestry.