Abstract: “The sub-optimal performance of small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) has been a grave concern in African developing countries, where the triple challenges of high unemployment, poverty and inequality are rife. More so, while a growing body of entrepreneurship literature attributes the underperformance of SMMEs in developing countries to lack of innovation of these firms, this literature has focused substantially on large scale, urban based enterprises in the manufacturing and retail sectors. Consequently, despite the increasing value of rural based agricultural enterprises to the economies of developing countries, the role of innovation in the performance of rural-based SMMEs remain under-explored and ambiguous in literature. Therefore, this paper examines the role and contribution of innovation to the improvement of SMME performance. The thesis of this paper is that mindful of the agro-based nature of African economies, the ballooning population that domicile in rural areas coup”

Keywords: Innovation, small scale agricultural enterprises, performance, small, micro and medium enterprises