Vestige garden production and deagrarianization in three villages in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Using a retrospective and circumspective approach, this paper looks at how livelihood strategies have changed during pre and post-democratic eras in rural former Transkei of the Eastern Cape, and identifies present livelihood strategies in Ndabakazi. The focus of the research was Ndabakazi, a cluster of rural villages in the former Transkei. A survey of 80 household heads was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires, complemented by focus group discussions. The findings show that farming and wage labour have been declining over time as major sources of income, while social grants have become increasingly important. Field crop cultivation has been completely abandoned and garden cultivation is declining. The overall findings show that livelihood strategies have continued to change from land based livelihoods to non-farm and later non-labour. The paper argues the importance of understanding a farm household in the perspective of household economics theory and to incorporate the diverse portfolio of livelihood strategies in farming households into the extension advisory service in order to render relevant and appropriate service.

Section: Crop Productionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Background: Change Of Rural Livelihood Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Farming Households' Livelihood Strategies In Ndabakazi Villages, Eastern Cape: What Are The Implications To Extension Services?

Zantsi

Bester

2019

“…The majority (57%) indeed felt constrained by farming in the homelands citing a variety of reasons such as land shortage, both for grazing and arable land, as well as drawbacks of unsecure property rights as they have no title deeds on the land they are currently using which they can use to secure loans from the private commercial banks. With regards to shortage of land, this finding is interesting concerning the overwhelming literature on abandoned arable field cultivation in most rural former homelands of the country (Andrew & Fox, 2004;Connor & Mtwana, 2017;De La Hey & Beinart, 2017).…”

Section: Willingness To Relocatementioning

confidence: 89%

Profiling Potential Land Redistribution Beneficiaries In South Africa: Implications For Agricultural Extension And Policy Design

Zantsi

2019

There is a general agreement that land reform has fallen short in achieving its intended objectives. One of the most commonly cited reasons for the slow progress in the land redistribution programme is lack of clear criteria in beneficiary selection. The State Land Lease and Disposal Policy, which is one of the current land redistribution policies, has identified commercial-oriented smallholders in the communal land as one of the land redistribution beneficiaries. However, there is little detailed empirical evidence on their constituents. Such information is crucial for policy-makers including the agricultural extension personnel, as this will enhance effective policy design and appropriate design of extension advisory service which will contribute to the success of land redistribution. The objective of this article is to fill this gap by profiling commercial-oriented small-scale farmers in three provinces that have the highest number of smallholders in South Africa. A survey of 833 farmers from these three provinces was conducted. Descriptive statistics and Binary Logistic Regression were used to analyse the data with the use of STATA software. The results show that a potential emerging farmer is a 55 years old male with primary education. Furthermore, 57% of the farmers are willing to relocate to commercial farms if there is government support and require an average farm of 152 hectares where they want to plant maize. The article concludes with some recommendations and implications for agricultural extension.

“…However, there is overwhelming evidence of under-utilised land in the Eastern Cape that can be put under production if emerging farmers' challenges are addressed and a well-developed farmer support system is designed (Andrew & Fox, 2004;Connor & Mtwana, 2018;De La Hey & Beinart, 2017). In order for emerging farmers to achieve the above roles, agricultural extension would have to play a role.…”

Section: Efficient Use Of Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards A Common Understanding Of 'emerging Farmer' In A South African Context Using Data From A Survey Of Three District Municipalities In The Eastern Cape Province

Zantsi¹,

Greyling²,

Vink³

2019

The objective of this study was to improve our understanding of the diversity among emerging smallholders using various commonly used indicators. These were reviewed and applied to a sample of 379 emerging smallholders situated in three major smallholding districts within the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It was found that the typical emerging farmer has the following profile: He is black, situated in a former homeland and is 58 years old. The typical farmer cultivates field crops as a secondary source of food and income, but keeps livestock as primary and secondary sources of income. The average emerging smallholder mostly grows maize for own consumption given a crop commercialisation index (CCI) of 0.66 and sells a greater portion of his cabbage and potatoes given CCIs of 0.73 and 0.83 respectively. The average emerging farmer earns a net income of R26 600 per year, but there is an income inequality, since the most successful farmer earns 26.7 times the average income. This translates to a Ghini coefficient of 0.48, which is high by international standards, but low compared to the South African average of 63.1. When speaking to fellow farmers, it was found that 78% of them feel constrained by farming in a homeland, but only 72% would be willing to move from their homeland, with most (45%) saying that they would only do so if they were provided with sufficient government support.