Browsing by Author "Mapedza, Everisto"

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    Joint ventures in the flag Boshielo irrigation scheme, South Africa: A history of smallholders, states and business
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2015) van Koppen, Barbara; Tapela, Barbara Nompumelelo; Mapedza, Everisto
    In the global debates on the modes of farming, including irrigated farming, that are viable for the majority of rural people, three models prevail: (i) smallholder family farming; (ii) farming led by agribusiness’ capital, technologies, and forward and backward linkages in an estate mode; and (iii) agribusiness-led farming in an out-grower mode. In South Africa, these three and more modes of irrigated agriculture have been implemented. In the colonial era, in most of the country, the state supported a white-dominated estate mode of farming based on wage labor. Smallholder family farming remained confined to black people in the former homelands. Smallholder irrigation schemes in the former homelands were out-grower schemes, managed by the colluding apartheid state, white agribusiness and irrigation industry. Since independence in 1994, the search for viable modes of farming and irrigation is high on the policy agenda. This is part of the envisaged transition of the state into a tripartite constellation of citizens, state and service providers that delivers accountable, outcome-based services.
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    Joint ventures in the Flag Boshielo Irrigation Scheme, South Africa: a history of smallholders, states and business
    (International Water Management Institute (IWMI)., 2018) van Koppen, Barbara; Tapela, Barbara Nompumelelo; Mapedza, Everisto
    For over a century, debates about the relation between farm size, mode of farming and land productivity have shaped agrarian policies, programs and research across the world. Until the 2000s, the pendulum tended to swing towards small-scale family farming. An inverse relationship between farm size and land productivity was widely found in Asia (Berry and Cline 1979). Millions of smallholder families cultivating 1 hectare (ha) or less intensified production for food and income. Their productivity depended on access to production factors, in particular fertilizers and irrigation, and access to rewarding output markets. Family members had more incentives to produce than wage laborers on larger farms. Larger farms were only more productive per unit of land when certain mechanization, such as tractors, started enabling economies of scale. Accordingly, agricultural policies in countries such as China and India primarily supported smallholders. In China, where land distribution became fairly egalitarian, this smallholder policy led to massive poverty alleviation and broad-based economic growth.