This study investigated the level of satisfaction among consumers of special tea (Monsonia burkeana) in the Capricorn District Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa. It sought to identify the factors that influenced this satisfaction. A total of 225 respondents were selected using snowball sampling, and primary data were collected through structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse consumer profiles and satisfaction levels, while multinomial logistic regression determined the factors influencing satisfaction across four categories: “Not satisfied at all”, “Satisfied”, “Not sure”, and “Highly satisfied”. The results revealed an average respondent age of 29.95 years and an average annual tea consumption of 4.684 uses, with over 50% of both male and female respondents expressing satisfaction. Regression analysis indicated that market access, cultural influences, income level, and the person introducing the tea significantly influenced dissatisfaction relative to high satisfaction. The income level was the only significant factor distinguishing “Satisfied” from “Highly satisfied”. Gender, age, marital status, and employment type were significant predictors for “Not sure” compared to “Highly satisfied”. These findings highlight the importance of developing the medicinal plant market, promoting cultural education, and implementing sustainable cultivation and conservation practices for Monsonia burkeana. Efforts to improve market access and address income disparities are also necessary to enhance consumer satisfaction and ensure the tea’s continued availability and cultural relevance.

The food supply chain in South Africa faces significant challenges related to transparency, traceability, and consumer trust. As concerns about food safety, quality, and sustainability grow, there is an increasing need for innovative solutions to address these issues. Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising tool to enhance transparency and accountability across various industries, including the food sector. This study sought to explore the potential of blockchain technology in revolutionizing through promoting transparency that enable the achievement of sustainable food supply chain infrastructure in South Africa. The study found that blockchain technology used in food supply chain creates an immutable and decentralized ledger of transactions that has the capacity to provide real-time, end-to-end visibility of food products from farm to table. This increased transparency can help mitigate risks associated with food fraud, contamination, and inefficiencies in the supply chain. The study found that blockchain technology can be leveraged to enhance supply chain efficiency and trust among stakeholders. This technology used and/or applied in South Africa can reshape the agricultural sector by improving production and distribution processes. Its integration in the food supply chain infrastructure can equally improve data management and increase transparency between farmers and food suppliers.There is need for policy-makers and scholars in the fields of service delivery and food security to conduct more research in blockchain technology and its roles in creating a more transparent, efficient, and trustworthy food supply chain infractructure that address food supply problems in South Africa. The paper adopted a qualitative methodology to collect data, and document and content analysis techniques were used to interpret collected data. 

A comprehensive proteomic analysis was carried out to evaluate leaf proteome changes of Brassica napus cultivars as an important oilseed crop inoculated with the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens FY32 under salt stress. Based on the physiochemical characteristics of canola, Hyola308 was a tolerant and Sarigol was a salt sensitive cultivar. Gel-based proteomics indicated that proteins related to energy/metabolism, cell/membrane maintenance, signalins, stress, and development respond to salt stress and bacterial inoculation in both cultivars. Under salt stress, Hyola308 launches mechanisms similar to Sarigol, but the tolerance was related to consuming less energy consumption than Sarigol for launching the proper pathway/mechanism. Inoculation with plant growth promoting bacteria promotes relative growth rate and net assimilation rate; causes increase in soluble sugar content (12–32% varing to cultivars and salt treatments), as an osmo-protectant, in leaves of Sarigol and Hyola308 in control and salt stress conditions. The groups of proteins that are affected due to inoculation (18 and14 functional groups in Hyola308 and Sarigol, respectively) are varying to stress-influenced groups (10 and 6 functional groups in Hyola308 and Sarigol, respectively) that might be because of regulating tolerance mechanism of plant and/or plant-growth promoting bacteria inoculation. Furthermore, it is recognized that P. fluorescens FY32 has a dual effect on the cultivars including a pathogenic effect and a growth promoting effect on both cultivars under salt stress.

This study examines the spatial distribution of socioeconomic conditions in Colombia, using Moran's Index as a tool for spatial autocorrelation analysis. Key indicators related to education, health, infrastructure, access to basic services, employment, and housing conditions are addressed, allowing the identification of inequalities and structural barriers. The research reveals patterns of positive autocorrelation in several socioeconomic dimensions, suggesting a concentration of poverty and underdevelopment in certain geographic areas of the country. The results show that municipalities with more unfavorable conditions tend to cluster spatially, particularly in the northern, northwestern, western, eastern, and southern regions of the country, while the central areas exhibit better conditions. Permutation analyses are employed to validate the statistical significance of the findings, and LISA cluster maps highlight the regions with the highest concentration of poverty and social vulnerability. This work contributes to the literature on inequality and regional development in emerging economies, demonstrating that public policies should prioritize intervention in territories that exhibit significant spatial clustering of poverty. The methodology and findings provide a foundation for future studies on spatial correlation and economic planning in both local and international contexts.