Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/18

The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) engages in research, training, policy development and advocacy in relation to land and agrarian reform, rural governance and natural resource management. It is committed to social change that empowers the poor, builds democracy and enhances sustainable livelihoods.

News

For the latest news from PLAAS click here.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 667

A 20-year evaluation of PLAAS research outputs: Impact on the scholarly domain and in social media
(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2019) Kerchhoff, Gillian; Kahn, Michelle; Nassimbeni, Mary
Patterns and methods of scholarly communication have changed with the growth in information technology, particularly the Internet and the social web. The changes have necessitated a broader definition of scholarly communication and the role of social media in the research process. We sought to record the body of work that the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), a research institute at the University of the Western Cape, produced over a 20-year period (1995–2015) – the first two decades of its existence – and to measure its visibility and impact using bibliometrics and altmetrics. A survey was also carried out to investigate to what extent PLAAS researchers knew and used social media in their research practice. Scopus and Google Scholar were used as citation indices and Altmetric.com provided Altmetric scores – a measure of impact through social and mainstream media.
45% of black South Africans want land
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2013) Hall, Ruth; Dubb, Alex
A comprehensive study of the demand for land carried out in 2005/6 reveals that one third of black South Africans want access to land for food production, and another 12% want land for a variety of other reasons (Aliber et al, 2006). Nearly half (48%) of those wanting access to land, want only 1 ha or less.
Access to land and other natural resources for local communities in Mozambique: Current examples from Manica Province
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2004) Durang, Tom; Tanner, Christopher
Mozambique is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Given that poverty remains overwhelmingly rural in nature, measures to effectively address it should therefore be targeted to the areas where the rural poor live, and should be based on the resources within their control. A programme to achieve these objectives began after the end of the civil war in 1992. This coincided with the government of Mozambique embarking on a more market-oriented rural development model after a period of socialised agriculture. The government realised that, despite being marginalised, rural communities continue to play a crucial role in the development and land management process. Old beliefs that local communities only produce for subsistence and do not invest and respond to market dynamics proved to be inaccurate.
Access to land and rural poverty in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2012-09) Cousins, Ben
The big picture: some history • Large-scale land dispossession from 1652 into the late 20th century • 1913 and 1936 Land Acts: African majority confined to 13% of country • Forced removals in apartheid years: 2.5 million people (1955 to 1990) • By 1994, 82 million ha of commercial farmland owned by 60,000 white farmers • 13 million black people were crowded into former ‘homelands’ • On private farms, 3 million workers and dependents – poorly paid, lacked basic facilities, no security of tenure • Commercial farming sector heavily subsidised by the state until the mid-1980s • Vibrant African
An activist's user guide to regional and international guidelines and principles for large-scale land-based investments
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, 2019-12-01) Zamchiya, Phillan
As multinational corporations continue to invest in large-scale, land-based, commercial ventures in Africa, a need to regulate such investments to protect the rural poor, especially women, has been identified. A number of stakeholders have intensified efforts since 2009 to promote ‘responsible’ investment in land, in particular by deploying regional and international principles and guidelines on large-scale, land-based investments.
Adverse incorporation and agrarian policy in South Africa, Or, How not to connect the rural poor to growth
(2009-02-26) du Toit, Andries
Africa's land rush: rural livelihoods and agrarian change
(James Currey, 2015) Hall, Ruth; Scoones, Ian; Tsikata, Dzodzi
This book is 'the most historically grounded, lucid and nuanced understanding to date of the complex political economy of the contemporary rush for land in Africa' according to Professor Adebayo Olukoshi, Director of of the United Nations Institute for Development. Africa's Land Rush explores the processes through which land deals are being made; the implications for agrian structure, rural livelihoods and food security; and the historical context for changing land uses. The case studies reveal that these land grabs may resonate with, even resurrect, forms of production associated with the colonial and early independence eras. Based on interviews with the investors, goverment, authorities, workers, outgrowers and smallholder farmers in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and the Congo, the book depicts the striking diversity of such deals.
Aging, resilience, and migration in the Sudano-sahelian ecological belt in Nigeria
(University of Western Cape, 2021) Makanju, Adebayo O.M.; Uriri, Alex E.
From the Sudano-Sahelian Zone to the coast, Nigeria is experiencing a variety of environmental change impacts, whether resulting from slow-onset changes or sudden shocks. These uptakes in events are significantly influencing migration decisions and livelihood resilience. The Sudano-Sahelian Ecological Zone, where natural resources form the foundation of livelihoods and food security, is a critical part of the environmental non-migration discussion. This study examines the relationship between environmental changes and non-migration outcomes. It also explores the household resilience of older non-migrants in the geographical area. The study utilized the LSMS-ISA datasets 2010-2018 (920 respondents, persons aged >50).
An Agrarian History of the Mwenezi District, Zimbabwe, 1980-2004
(University of the Western Cape, 2007) Manganga, Kudakwashe; Goebel, Allison; School of Government; Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences
The thesis examines continuity and change in the agrarian history of the Mwenezi District, southern Zimbabwe since 1980. It analyses agrarian reforms, agrarian practices and development initiatives in the district and situates them in the localised livelihood strategies of different people within the Dinhe Communa Area and the Mangondi resettlement Area in Lieu of the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) since 2000. The thesis also examines the livelihood opportunities and challenges presented by the FTLRP to the inhabitants of Mwenezi.The thesis contributes to the growing body of empirical studies on the impact of Zimbabwe's ongoing land reform programme and to debates and discourses on agrarian reform.
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.
Agricultural investment, gender and land in Africa: Towards inclusive equitable and socially responsible investment
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2014) Hall, Ruth; Osorio, Martha
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa; the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC); and the Land Policy Initiative (LPI) of the African Union; the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), co-hosted a multi-stakeholder conference in Cape Town, South Africa, 5–7 March 2014. The conference was attended by representatives of governments, the private sector, civil society, producer organisations, development partners, donors and academics from the following countries: Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Italy, Uganda, Canada, United States and the United Kingdom. The conference was a forum for in-depth discussions and sharing of experiences on land-related agricultural investments. Participants deliberated on which approaches to agricultural investments can benefit African states and their citizens. Presenters shared qualitative and quantitative evidence on investments, along with country-based case studies, and the conference culminated in recommendations by sectoral and multi-sectoral working groups on actions required to promote inclusive, equitable and socially responsible investments in Africa.
Agricultural land acquisition by foreign investors in Pakistan: Government policy and community responses
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012) Settle, Antonia C.
This paper explores the Pakistani government’s 2009 agricultural investment policy package — a response to increasing foreign investor interest in agricultural land — and considers the likely implications for local communities. By analysing the policy pertaining to the categories of cultivated and uncultivated land, the paper explores possible consequences that peasant farming communities and grazing communities face. The policy’s dependence on arbitrary and anti-poor colonial-era laws and processes places the policy squarely in established centre–periphery relations rooted by colonial-era politics of land ownership. Thus, the offer of agricultural land to foreign investors is both an unprecedented international land grab and a development in ongoing land appropriation by influential people through state apparatuses, continuous with colonial practices. This in turn has spurred community responses within the same dynamic of colonially rooted centre–periphery conflict; community responses revolve around various ethnic separatist movements that originated in earlier colonial politics. Apart from the precarious balance of social and economic power in Pakistan — evident in the making and implications of the agricultural investment policy — the findings point to an urgent need for the Pakistani government to address environmental and food security issues.
Agriculture, value chains and the rural non-farm economy in Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe
(Spinger Nature, 2019) du Toit, Andries
This chapter compares rural development in Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe, concentrating on agricultural value chains and their implications for the rural non-farm economy (RNFE). Based on detailed qualitative exploration, it is shown that value chains in Mchinji (Malawi) are predominantly local, with few impulses being generated for the RNFE. The commercialised farms that characterise Weenen (South Africa) are locally disembedded, thus not triggering local development. In Mazowe and Mazvingo (Zimbabwe), agriculture is linked to a thriving RNFE and to distant corporate players. This creates down- and upstream markets that are significantly more complex and diverse than in the Malawian and South African cases. Against this background, the author suggests that dense, locally embedded and externally connected networks that do not suffer from an overly unequal distribution of power are most conducive to rural development.
Alleviating urban energy poverty in the informal sector: The role for local government
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2010) Wolpe, Peta; Reddy, Yachika
The depth and severity of poverty and inequality persists in South Africa, despite progressive pro-poor policies. Strong evidence also points to the unbridled growth in informality and remaining as a long-term feature of our landscape. Energy poverty is most severely experienced by those living in this sector. Against this backdrop, this paper sets out to explore through the analysis of urban energy poverty in informal settlements the challenges of developmental local government in its approaches to energy service delivery to this sector. It concludes that these developmental challenges require transformation at multiple levels of government in order to truly fulfil the constitutional objectives of poverty alleviation and to promote development and growth in South Africa. At the local level responsive solutions and capacity to undertake this is required, while at the macro-level, strengthened leadership and enhanced intergovernmental coordination is required to change the status quo.
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA and the occupation of the Guinea Savannah
(2015) Greenberg, Stephen
The US, EU and African agricultural modernisation G8 New Alliance on Food Security and Nutrition (NAFSN), USAID and US foreign policy AGRA – Gate Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation – philanthro-capitalism Corporate drivers – Monsanto, Syngenta, Yara and many others Gates – Monsanto shares, proprietary (privately-owned) technologies Rockefeller – CGIAR institutions (2nd food regime) World Bank – Guinea Savannah – “600 million ha ripe for commercial farming”
Alternative food networks and food insecurity in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-06) Haysom, Gareth
Food security remains a persistent global challenge. Inequality means that food insecurity is disproportionately experienced. Despite positive shifts in the state of food security at a global scale, recent reports from the Food and Agricultural Organisation suggest that in Africa the total number of undernourished people continues to increase. The paper argues that there is a certain “stuckness” in food security responses. The mutually converging transitions of the urban transition, food regime shifts and the nutrition transition demand different ways of understanding the food system, food security and the components thereof, including value chains. The paper reviews efforts designed to respond to these mutually reinforcing challenges but argues that generalisations are problematic. Borrowing concepts from the North is equally problematic. Using the concept of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), the paper interrogates these networks and asks how such alternative networks manifest in the context of food insecurity in South African cities. AFNs evident in Northern cities and regions are generally privileged and present a perspective of the food system that prioritises sustainability and a deep green and often local ethic, embodying aspirations of food system change. In Southern cities, food system engagement is less about engagement for change, but rather, engagement to enable food access. Traditional value chain parlance sees a value chain extending from producer to consumer. The food access value chain present within poor urban communities in South Africa reflects more than just financial transactions. Transactions of reciprocity and social exchange are embedded within food security strategies, and are often informed by the enactment of agency. Using the term “the food access continuum” this paper calls for a far more expansive view of food access strategies and networks. Understanding these networks is essential to effective food and nutrition security policy and programming.
Amendment submission: National policy for beneficiary selection and land allocation
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, 2020-03-02) Ramantsima, Katlego; Mtero, Farai; Gumede, Nkanyiso; Du Toit, Andries; Hall, Ruth
PLAAS has read and considered the implications of the National Policy for Beneficiary Selection and Land Allocation and submits the following comments and recommendations to the Director-General: Rural Development and Land Reform.
Analysis of government compliance in the provision of water and sanitation to rural communities: a case study of Lepelle Nkumpi local municipality, Limpopo province
(University of Western Cape, 2020) Mothapo, Raesibe Anna; Ruiters, Gregory
A persistent challenge facing especially post-apartheid South African rural municipalities is service delivery compliance. Under the guise of scarcity, rural municipalities repeatedly do not comply with legislation, policies and guidelines for the provision of drinking water and basic sanitation services for the poor. Yet, such challenges concern equity, justice and fairness to social policy and seriously impact the sustainability of livelihood of millions of rural households. The main objective of this study is to analyse the extent to which Lepelle Nkumpi Local Municipality has complied with or deviated from specific policies and legislation governing the provision of water and sanitation services at the Gedroogte, Ga Molapo and Magatle (in Zebediela) rural communities and the response of communities. The study was also intended to determine the extent to which water challenges affect the livelihood of the people in the communities. It highlights the refugee-like conditions that millions of South African citizens experience despite official statistics that claim that 86% of the country has access to potable water. A mixed methods design was used for this analysis. The qualitative methods that are used in the study include use of in-depth interviews, site visits, personal stories and the Municipal Integrated Development Programme (IDP). Participatory mapping of water sources; story-telling about water issues; timelines and trend lines by focus group members; transect walks and 7 key informant interviews were used to collect data. A total of 657 quantitative interviews were conducted in three communities. Service delivery compliance has been grossly ineffective and inefficient in Lepelle Nkumpi Local Municipality, especially in the Gedroogte, Ga Molapo and Magatle rural communities. The findings were that these rural communities still depend on state-owned boreholes for accessing drinking water, which are regularly broken and/or in disrepair. Sanitation service provision in the rural communities does not comply with the approved policy of providing ventilated improved pit (VIP) toilets. New settlements have increased the demand for clean water. Shortages of staff with relevant skills such as management, technicians, and administrators are one of the main reasons why there is a scarce supply of drinking water and basic sanitation services at the Gedroogte, Ga Molapo and Magatle communities. Inaccessibility to nearby treatment plants for waste disposal services (situation per community) and inaccessible disposal facilities and the use of disposal sites also affect the health conditions of community members within the Lepelle Nkumpi Local Municipality.

Browse

Browsing by Title

Results Per Page

Sort Options