PLAAS Research Reports

Search within this collection:

Advanced Search

Browse by

By Issue Date
Authors
Titles
Subjects

Recent Submissions

Contesting the food system in South Africa: issues and opportunities

Greenberg, Stephen (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2010)

[more]

[less]

Abstract:

This report widens the debate about food production and distribution in South Africa to consider some of the entrenched power dynamics that shape the way these happen, and to consider whether a more radical transformation of the agro-food system is required to ensure adequate access to food for all.It considers the structure of the South African agro-food system, and looks at points of possible intervention that could not only open the system to greater involvement by those who have been marginalised or passively incorporated into that system, but that also offer potential pathways to structural change that could deepen diversity in the agro-food system and reorient it to the needs of the poor, both as historically subordinated producers and as consumers.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/572

Files in this item: 1

RR42.pdf (1.218Mb)

Strategies to support South African smallholders as a contribution to government’s second economy strategy. Volume 2: Case studies

Aliber, Michael (PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, 2011)

[more]

[less]

Abstract:

This second volume of Strategies to support South African smallholders as a contribution to government’s second economy strategy contains sixteen case studies that comprise the main data for the analysis detailed in Volume 1. This collection of case studies provides a useful resource on its own, providing a rich and diverse repository of narratives depicting various types of smallholders in diverse circumstances and environments. As researchers were given the latitude to deviate from a standardised approach, this volume reveals the authors’ different styles, different emphases, and indeed different disciplinary strengths. The ‘unit of analysis’ also differs across case studies: some are studies of single individuals, others focus on particular schemes or projects, and still others involve a comparative analysis of individuals or projects. Due to the complexity of categorising the case studies they have been simply grouped by province, and are ordered, roughly, from southwest to northeast.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/392

Files in this item: 1

AliberSmallholders2011.pdf (4.092Mb)

Strategies to support South African smallholders as a contribution to government’s second economy strategy. Volume 1: Situation analysis, fieldwork findings and main conclusions

Aliber, Michael; Baiphethi, Mompati; de Satge, Rick; Denison, Jonathan; Hart, Tim; Jacobs, Peter; van Averbeke, Wim (PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, 2009)

[more]

[less]

Abstract:

Within the ambit of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa, government is leading a process to define a Second Economy Strategy, and has identified the agricultural sector as a site of opportunity, potentially fostering a larger number of smallholder agriculturalists. In an effort to identify an implementable program to support the smallholder sector, this study closely analyses what makes particular South African smallholdings in various settings successful and what factors contributed to their success. A broad definition of agricultural smallholding is employed including independent operators, group farmers, subsistence farmers and commercial farmers. ‘Supporting the smallholder sector’ is conceptualised as consisting of four distinct strands, namely the prospects and measures for: improving the performance of subsistence-oriented smallholders; encouraging/enabling currently subsistence-oriented smallholders to benefit from a more commercial orientation; improving the performance of commercially oriented smallholders; and increasing participation in smallholder agriculture among those (especially rural dwellers) who do not practise agriculture.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/391

Files in this item: 1

AliberSmallholders2009.pdf (1.825Mb)

Imithetho yomhlaba yaseMsinga: The living law of land in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal

Cousins, Ben (PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, 2011)

[more]

[less]

Abstract:

This report describes the ‘living law’ of land in one part of Msinga, a deep rural area of KwaZulu-Natal. It presents research findings from the Mchunu and Mthembu tribal areas, where a three-year action-research project was carried out by staff of the Mdukutshani Rural Development Programme. Launched in 2007, at a time when implementation of the Communal Land Rights Act of 2004 (CLRA) appeared imminent, the project aimed to gain a detailed understanding of land tenure in Msinga, facilitate local-level discussion of potential solutions to emerging problems around land rights, provide information on the CLRA to residents and authority structures, and help generate ideas on how local people could engage with the new law. Meetings, interviews and focus groups convened by the project between 2007 and 2009 generated lively discussions and debates on a range of issues and problems related to land tenure in Msinga. Policy-makers need to consider how to convene conversations of this kind, on a large scale, before they launch a new round of tenure reform policy formulation and law making. Our experience suggests that well designed processes are critically important to ensure informed discussion, but also that ordinary rural people, not just their leaders, are more than ready to engage in debates about policies that could have major impacts on their lives.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/390

Files in this item: 1

CousinsLandMsinga2011.pdf (3.011Mb)

The impact of land restitution and land reform on livelihoods

Hall, Ruth (PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, 2007)

[more]

[less]

Abstract:

This report investigates emerging trends evident in the limited literature available on the impact of land restitution on livelihoods, and suggests ways of thinking about, and planning for, livelihoods. The report has a two-fold emphasis: its primary focus is on rural restitution claims where land has been restored, but it also addresses rural land reform more generally. Where land ownership has been transferred to land reform beneficiaries, similar patterns and challenges may arise, regardless of whether the land was acquired through the redistribution or the restitution route.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/90

Files in this item: 1

Hall_Impact2007.pdf (1.418Mb)

PLAAS Research Reports

UWC Research Repository

PLAAS Research Reports

Browse by

Recent Submissions

Search Research Repository

Browse

All of Research Repository

This Collection

My Account

Statistics