Working Papers

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/21

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Browsing by Subject "Agriculture"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Changes in South Africa’s global agricultural trade regime, 1996–2013
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2014-10) Williams, Ethan
    This paper presents an examination of the major trends in South African international trade in agricultural products between the years 1996 and 2013. The analysis covers three broad areas: (1) the changing weight of key trading partners in South Africa’s overall agricultural trade regime; (2) changes in the major products being traded with the rest of the world; and (3) changes in the products being traded with each of its key trading partners. The paper begins by analysing the changes in the total export and total import values to and from the trading partners identified above, and the changing shares of total value held by each partner. The next section focuses on the major products traded in terms of value – both how the composition of the product profile has transformed, and the main sources of the trade in these products. Finally, each trading partner is given individual focus. The EU remained the dominant source of imports and the dominant destination for exports throughout the period. The import market shifted dramatically away from the US and Africa toward Brazil and China. In the export market, the presence of the USA, Japan and MERCUSOR receded whilst Africa and China underwent strong growth. The top two export destinations, the EU and Africa, dominated the market by a significant margin, accounting for well over half of total export value throughout. Rice and wheat were the dominant products within the import market throughout the period, whilst the position of poultry meat strengthened and sunflower-seed oil receded. In poultry meat imports, the USA saw sharp decline, whilst South America and the EU underwent a very strong rise. The major shifts in the export market were away from sugar and titanium oxide, and towards fresh fruit and wine.
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    Commercialisation, deagrarianisation and the accumulation/reproduction dynamic: Massive maize production schemes in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012-12) Mtero, Farai
    The post-apartheid era has seen the South African government trying to reverse ‘deagrarianisation’ in the former homelands by introducing ‘modern’ farming techniques and agribusiness principles. This paper situates the massive maize schemes currently being implemented in the context of increased national and international capitalisation of agriculture. The paper focuses on the ‘communal area’ villages of Ongeluksnek Valley in the Eastern Cape, one of the localities where the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) maize scheme was initiated. The scheme requires villagers to consolidate their arable fields into larger blocks of land which can be ‘efficiently’ cultivated by private contractors using machinery and agro-chemicals. Villagers are not involved in decision making, but receive 10% of gross income in return, while ‘learning about’ commercial production. In practice, however, costs are high, and very little surplus is available for redistribution to the beneficiaries. In this paper, we argue that the process of capital accumulation, and associated trajectories of increased centralisation and concentration, is critical to understanding the social reproduction and accumulation dynamics of small scale farming in the countryside. The current corporate food regime constrains accumulation from below.
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    Oranges and labourers: The potential for job creation in the citrus sub-sector of South Africa
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2018-06) Genis, Amelia
    Rural employment is a key policy issue in South Africa, yet the National Development Plan (NDP) of 2012 suggests that one million jobs can be created in agricultural production, processing and related activities. The plan suggests that more jobs can be created by increased investment in water and irrigation infrastructure, linking small scale farmers with markets, creating tenure security for farmers in communal areas, innovative financing and joint ventures. In the plan, a matrix depicting “agricultural growth and employment potential” shows that citrus, nuts, subtropical and deciduous fruit and vegetables demonstrate potential for both high growth and labour intensity. This Working Paper focuses on the potential for job creation in the citrus sub-sector, which is believed to be one of the biggest employers in agriculture as well as one of the sub-sectors with the biggest potential for job creation due to the dynamic nature of its expansion. Ongoing research shows that jobs can indeed be created through the expansion of orchards in the large-scale commercial sector and by establishing orchards on land designated for production by new black farmers, as well as in citrus nurseries, packing sheds and in processing. However, expansion of production is constrained by the availability of water, access to capital to buy land and establish orchards and the struggle to enhance market access in a global environment of proliferating non-tariff barriers and competitive trade negotiations. Furthermore, the recent introduction of a National Minimum Wage (NMW) at a higher level than the sectoral determination for agriculture may lead to efforts to rationalise the present workforce, rather than creating jobs, whereas accumulation strategies of commercial farmers are often aimed at mechanisation, reorganisation and casualisation in order to employ fewer workers.
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    Principles and practice for successful farmland redistribution in South Africa
    (Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019) Vink, Nick; Kirsten, Johann
    The current debate on land reform in South Africa is unnecessarily polarised between those who believe that the market has failed to deliver, and those who believe that the bureaucracy has failed to deliver. Instead, we propose a ‘state-incentivised but private sector-delivered’ land reform that has a first ‘fast-track’ phase of a decade in which rapid land transfer is effected by a joint effort between the state and private actors. This calls for the creation of a virtual land depository and a Land Reform Fund where the private sector provides the bulk of the land and the funds, and these two actors partner with land reform beneficiaries and commercial farmers to create a support environment that allows new farmers the opportunity to establish themselves successfully in the agricultural sector.