Policy Briefs

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Agricultural commercialisation in Meru County, Kenya: What are the policy implications?
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2016) Hakizimana, Cyriaque
Our study aimed to engage these debates. The study was carried out in Kenya’s Meru County and examined three agricultural farming models: outgrowers, medium-scale commercial farms and a plantation. This was part of the ‘Land and Agricultural Commercialisation in Africa’ research project conducted in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. The study provides a comparative perspective across the models on land, labour, employment, livelihoods and economic linkages. It used a mixed methods approach, including qualitative and quantitative methods and detailed life histories.
Agricultural commercialisation in Meru County, Kenya: What are the policy implications?
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016) Hakizimana, Cyriaque
Kenya’s highlands have a long history of agricultural commercialisation, from colonial times to the present. Policies from 1895 to the 1930s were aimed primarily at developing European settler agriculture, which formed the backbone of Kenya’s colonial economy. The first major land reform took place on the eve of Kenya’s independence in the mid-1950s. Famously known as the Swynnerton Plan, this colonial agricultural policy intended to create an African middle class of commercial farmers through land consolidation that would pioneer an agrarian transformation based on cash-crop agriculture.
Agricultural investment corridors in Africa: Making the voices of women and smallholder farmers count
(UWC PLAAS, 2023) Sulle, Emmanuel; Smalley, Rebecca
Development corridors can improve livelihood opportunities for people living in far-flung areas – but only if they focus on smallholder farming, pastoralism, fishing, and infrastructure for small-scale trade. Land rights abuses have occurred as the corridor and growth pole projects have unfolded. Some poorly-designed programmes invited large agribusiness investments that displaced and marginalised local people. Smallholder-farmer and women’s organisations are rarely invited to contribute to the planning and design of the corridor and growth pole projects, and are only minimally involved in their governance.
Assessing potential for employment-intensive land reform in South Africa: Key research findings from a CBPEP study
(GTAC, 2020) GTAC
The Capacity Building Programme for Employment Promotion (CBPEP) is an EU-funded initiative aimed at assisting the Government of South Africa to attain its goal of reducing unemployment, by building state and institutional capacity. The CBPEP seeks to build state capability for employment promotion, as well as support strategic dialogue, shared problem-solving and practical collaboration between the social partners. It also aims to strengthen the knowledge and evidence base for effective policy, planning and imple-mentation. This policy brief focuses on the potential contribution of redistributive land reform to employment creation.
The biofuels boom and bust in Africa: A timely lesson for the New Alliance initiative
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2015) Sulle, Emmanuel
Policies promoting biofuels development through financial incentives in Europe and in the United States of America are major drivers of the ‘land rush’ in many African countries. Yet, we know that most of the first projects have not achieved their intended objectives on the ground. Amidst these controversial and failed investments, which continue to hold large tracts of land in Africa, the G8 initiative called the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is trying to attract substantial new private investment in agriculture in ten African countries. The New Alliance focuses on public-private investments, with host governments offering large tracts of land to investors. These land-based investments follow similar patterns to unrealised ambitions of biofuels investments. Given the evidence of negative impacts of biofuels investments on rural communities’ access to and control of land, water and forests, the New Alliance implementing partners need to consider lessons from the biofuels rush, and take different pathways to avoid such impacts.
The biofuels boom and bust in Africa: a timely lesson for the New Alliance initiative
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2015) Sulle, Emmanuel
Policies promoting biofuels development through financial incentives in Europe and in the United States of America are major drivers of the ‘land rush’ in many African countries. Yet, we know that most of the first projects have not achieved their intended objectives on the ground. Amidst these controversial and failed investments, which continue to hold large tracts of land in Africa, the G8 initiative called the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is trying to attract substantial new private investment in agriculture in ten African countries. The New Alliance focuses on public-private investments, with host governments offering large tracts of land to investors. These land-based investments follow similar patterns to unrealised ambitions of biofuels investments. Given the evidence of negative impacts of biofuels investments on rural communities’ access to and control of land, water and forests, the New Alliance implementing partners need to consider lessons from the biofuels rush, and take different pathways to avoid such impacts.
Budgeting for land reform
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004) Hall, Ruth; Lahiff, Edward
The primary purpose of land reform in South Africa is to redistribute agricultural and other land in order to address the racially skewed pattern of landholding and promote development. Slow progress in land reform over the past decade underscores the urgency of finding ways to accelerate the process. The state has adopted a market-assisted approach to redistribution. This means that land is usually bought at full market price. In addition, substantial funding is needed for the implementation of the programme and for post-settlement support to beneficiaries. The budget allocated to land reform is therefore of central importance to the programme. This publication surveys trends in the land reform budget over the past decade, with particular emphasis on the redistribution programme.
Building back better after Covid-19: Why South Africa needs an equitable food system for small-scale farmers and fishers, street traders and consumers – and how to build it
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2021) Hall, Ruth; Wegerif, Marc
This policy brief reports headline findings from research investigating the impacts of Covid-19 regulations and mitigation measures on actors in South Africa’s food system. The research focuses on fresh produce in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal and fish in the Western Cape. The researchers conducted 211 in-depth interviews, facilitated the production of 24 food diaries and visited 16 primary field sites.
Can agriculture contribute to inclusive rural economies?
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2015) du Toit, Andries
If agricultural development is to contribute to economic growth, it has to do more than increase the productivity or efficiency of farming. It also needs to contribute to employment in the rural non-farm sector. This is because increases in the intensity, efficiency or competitiveness of agriculture often push large numbers of people off the land – and opportunities for finding alternative employment in the cities are scarce. Inclusive growth thus also depends on the development of an inclusive and diverse rural non-farm economy (RNFE). This is something often ignored both by agricultural and labour market policy. Policymakers, therefore, need to ask how different pathways of agricultural development affect non-farm employment. Research conducted by PLAAS indicates that agricultural development can indeed stimulate local non-farm job creation – but the links are neither simple nor direct. While access by farmers to lucrative global markets or national markets can stimulate the local economy, much depends on the precise nature of the forward and backward linkages that connect farming to the rest of the economy. The ability of farming to stimulate the RNFE depends greatly on the scale of agriculture, the social and spatial organisation of agricultural value chains and the political economy of local institutions.
Challenges and prospects for trans-boundary fisheries in Lakes Chiuta and Kariba
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2006) Whande, Webster; Malasha, Isaac; Njaya, Friday
Community-based conservation (CBC) is a prominent feature of conservation and development policy and practice in southern Africa. It is a generic concept defining different configurations of controlling access to and use of land and natural resources in southern Africa – and has led to the development of policies and legislation in support of community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) and co-management arrangements. Both concepts largely revolve around the premise of devolution of control and management authority over natural resources to facilitate conservation and use of, and local access to, resources. A focus on regional economic integration has offered an opportunity for extending the experiences of CBNRM and comanagement to resources occurring along international boundaries. Different trans-boundary natural resources management (TBNRM) programmes have been initiated in southern Africa. The experience of two inshore fisheries on Lakes Chiuta and Kariba highlights the challenges of TBNRM, especially at local resource users’ level. A proposal for meaningful engagement of local resource-dependent people is suggested in the form of a trans-boundary commons regulated through co-management institutions. Broad implications of this suggestion, including terrestrial TBNRM progammes, are briefly discussed.
Civil society and social movements: Advocacy for land and resource rights in Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004) Saruchera, Munyaradzi; Odhiambo, Michael O
Civil society formations in Africa have historically played an important part in the establishment of organising people in the pursuit of common goals. The majority of Africa’s people reside in rural areas where they derive their livelihoods from land, and for this majority secure access to land is the foundation of any efforts to alleviate poverty. Land reforms in Africa are at various stages of development in a number of countries, partly in response to pressures for liberalisation and privatisation from the World Bank and other like-minded institutions. Civil society organisations have played an important role in the development of progressive policies in some countries. The lessons learnt from those countries must be applied in continuing advocacy for reforms which increase access among the poor to land and resource rights.
Comments on the Green Paper on land reform 2011
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011) du Toit, Andries; Cousins, Ben; Hall, Ruth; Kleinbooi, Karin; Paradza, Gayno; Ukpabi, Obiozo
As we have indicated in our earlier press release, the document released as a Green Paper by the Department Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform is a great disappointment. The Green Paper is the product of a drafting process taking two and a half years. This has been a secretive process in which the South African public has been kept largely in the dark. The Ministry and its Department have shown themselves to be unwilling to learn from their mistakes, and unwilling to consult with civil society, stakeholders and expert opinion. Instead of providing a Green Paper based on an honest assessment of the past fifteen years of policy implementation, it has refused to learn from experience, both from its own mistakes and successes, and from encouraging innovations that are taking place on the ground, often despite inadequate or misguided state policy. Instead it has produced a vague document that develops general recommendations on the basis of general principles. The result is a Green Paper that fails to answer the key policy questions facing land reform in South Africa.
Commodity Study: Small-Scale Sugar Production
(GTAC, 2020-03-31) Dubb, Alex
The South African sugar industry has long been one of South Africa’s most substantial agro-industries. The South African Sugar Association (SASA) estimates that around R16bn in value is annually created by 85,000 directly employed and 350,000 indirectly employed persons, and ultimately with approximately one million rural lives dependant on these jobs. Every 1,000 hectares (ha) in sugarcane land, the industry estimates, carries an average of 133 permanent and 210 seasonal jobs (SASA 2019; SASA 2019 pers. comm.).1 2 In addition to its sheer magnitude, the sugar industry is distinct from other agro-industries by the inclusion in the 1970s of substantial numbers of black small-scale sugarcane growers (SSGs), farming predominately under ‘communal’ or ‘customary’ tenure. The inclusion of small-scale black growers in a ‘formal’ value chain has been variously attributed to systems of rotating credit (SASYB 1974/5), the command of land resources by traditional authorities and of production processes by miller sugar producers (Vaughan 1992a, Vaughan 1991), and opportunities to accumulate by ‘contractors’ providing planting, harvest and haulage services (Vaughan 1992b, Munro 1996).
Commodity study: Wool production by small-scale farmers
(GTAC, 2020-03-31) Kenyon, Mike
Small-scale wool production, especially in former bantustan areas, has the potential for significant expansion and ongoing and successful farmer support should be expanded. The small proportion of sheep and wool farmers in bantustan areas who are prepared to relocate to private land, preferably in nearby districts with similar physical and climatic characteristics, should be one priority for support through land redistribution programmes. The success or failure of expanded production and class mobility should be measured over the medium to long term, including over multiple generations and may depend on ongoing and effective support programmes. New employment opportunities are likely to be modest, especially as there is very limited processing of wool before export. Farming for wool is extensive farming, optimally with low turnover but decent margins, compared to dairy farming which may also be extensive but is high in turnover with low margins. Net farm profit is a useful indicator of success or failure, rather than turnover. It may also be useful in defining emergent farmers. Net farm profit may be very different from household income as a measure of wealth/poverty and inequality. This is especially so in trust land areas where livestock and livestock products may constitute a small component of household income or a component used as savings or reserve capital for annual expenses, family events and emergencies.
Common property resources and privatisation trends in Southern Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004) Saruchera, Munyaradzi; Fakir, Saliem
Access to common property resources (CPRs) is a significant part of the land resource base and therefore the livelihoods of many poor rural people. However, despite their central importance, CPRs are declining throughout the world due to neglect, under- investment, expropriation and mismanagement. Other factors contributing to this phenomenon include inappropriate policies and weak community institutions; the actions of powerful and influential elites; unequal socio-economic and political relations; and the impacts of globalisation. Over-exploitation of CPRs, through unsustainable harvesting, and privatisation of CPRs through legal processes or illegal seizures, are commonplace. Both have major environmental and livelihood consequences. The decline of CPRs is accompanied by rising poverty among the poor people most dependent on them.
Commons Governanace in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2009) The CROSCOG project team
The commons (or common-pool resources)1 are the most important resources in southern Africa. The livelihoods of the majority and economies of most countries depend on them. Although common property regimes are often condemned as environmentally unsustainable, economically unviable or socially anachronistic, this mode of natural resource tenure and governance remains vitally necessary in the livelihoods of the rural poor across much of the region (Hara et al., 2009). Away from a limited number of project-based efforts for communitybased management (often focused on specific natural resource sectors), such as Zimbabwe’s high-profile CAMPFIRE, millions of poor, rural people across the region continue their own integrated efforts to manage and live from the ecosystems that surround them. This, above all, is a challenge to governance. The poor must tackle it – and governments and development agencies must support their endeavours (ibid.).
Commons governance in Southern Africa
(PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, 2009-06-28) Hara, Mafaniso; Matose, Frank; Wilson, Doug; Raakjær, Jesper; Magole, Lapologang; Magole, Lefatshe; Demotts, Rachel; Njaya, Friday; Turner, Stephen; Buscher, Bram; Haller, Tobias; Mvula, Peter; Binauli, Lucy; Chabwela, Harry; Kapasa, Cyprian; Mhlanga, Lindah; Nyikahadzoi, Kefasi
This Policy Brief is based on synthetic studies undertaken by participants in the Cross Sectoral Commons Governance in Southern Africa (CROSCOG) project between 2007 and 2009, funded by the European Commission (European Commission: FP6-2002-INCO- DEV/SSA-1, contract no. 043982). The objective of the project was to share existing research and experience in the governance of large-scale natural resource commons across various ecosystem types in southern Africa.
The Communal Land Rights Bill
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003) Claassens, Aninka
Tenure legislation is urgently necessary. There are serious problem in the communal areas in the ex-homeland provinces. These areas are characterised by severe poverty, overcrowding and isolation from economic growth and opportunity. One of the issues that inhibits development, is the lack of clarity about the status of land rights in communal areas. Who has what rights? Who must agree to changes? Who has the legal authority to transact land? One of the consequences of this confusion is that the people who actually use and occupy the land are often pushed aside and dispossessed when development and land transactions do take place. Others, purporting to act on their behalf, take the money and run. The underlying confusion about the status of land rights, has been exacerbated by the breakdown of the land administration system in the ex-homeland provinces. In most provinces nobody has the legal power to allocate land rights, and there is no budget or staff to survey sites, maintain grazing camps, enforce dipping regimes or control the plunder of common property resources such as medicinal herbs and forests. Double and disputed land allocations are the order of the day, illegal and informal land sales are increasingly common and stock theft has reached alarming proportions. There is a serious and deepening crisis concerning land rights and land allocations in communal areas, which is impacting negatively on rural poverty. One of the inevitable results is that investors and formal and financial institutions avoid these areas. Local people find it almost impossible to raise loans for businesses, or to access housing subsidies.
Community conservancies in Namibia: An effective institutional model for commons management?
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004) Skyer, Patricia; Saruchera, Munyaradzi
Common property resources (CPRs) remain of great significance for livelihoods among rural and poor communities of the world. CPRs are particularly important because in many contexts they remain resources of last resort since they provide grazing, timber, wood fuel, thatching, fruits and other products for domestic use and income generation. Access to collectively-managed resources is important for poor rural households and yet many governments continue to pursue policies that undermine the livelihoods of those most dependent on CPRs by privatising them or entrenching monopoly and state control over them. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) policies have been developed and implemented in a number of southern African countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia. The experience of Namibia provides important lessons for how to implement policies which provide tangible benefits for rural communities living on communal land.
Community opportunities in aquaculture, What are the possibilities and limits?
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016) Hara, Mafaniso; Njokweni, Gugu; Semoli, Belemane
Aquaculture now contributes 47% of fish available for human consumption – up from 9% in 1980. This shift to aquaculture offsets the stagnation in the production from capture fisheries (FAO 2012). By 2030, demand for fish is expected to reach 261 million tonnes, but fish production is only expected to rise to 210 million tonnes; demand will therefore exceed supply by 50 million tonnes. Africa is likely to produce 11 million tonnes by 2030, but the demand will be as high as 18 million tonnes (FAO 2013). Developing countries are more likely to feel the fish shortfall as cheap and accessible fish protein becomes less available (HLPE 2014; Delgado et al 2003). Increased aquaculture production could be critical in bridging the gap. However, despite huge advances in aquaculture in China, Southeast Asia and other regions, Africa’s contribution to global aquaculture production was still less than 3% in 2012 (FAO 2014). Africa’s low aquaculture productivity is mirrored in South Africa where less than 5 000 tonnes of fish per year comes from aquaculture, while over 600 000 tonnes is from capture fisheries (Britz 2007; George Warman Publications 2007). Even at continental level, South Africa contributes less than 1% to Africa’s aquaculture production (FAO 2014). Nevertheless, aquaculture has great potential to increase fish production in South Africa and Africa (DAFF 2012).

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