Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)
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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.
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Item 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, MaryPatterns 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.Item 45% of black South Africans want land(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2013) Hall, Ruth; Dubb, AlexA 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.Item 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, ChristopherMozambique 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.Item Access to land and rural poverty in South Africa(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2012-09) Cousins, BenThe 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 AfricanItem 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, PhillanAs 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.Item Adverse incorporation and agrarian policy in South Africa, Or, How not to connect the rural poor to growth(2009-02-26) du Toit, AndriesItem Africa's land rush: rural livelihoods and agrarian change(James Currey, 2015) Hall, Ruth; Scoones, Ian; Tsikata, DzodziThis 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.Item 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).Item Agricultural commercialisation in Meru County, Kenya: What are the policy implications?(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2016) Hakizimana, CyriaqueOur 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.Item 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, CyriaqueKenya’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.Item Agricultural investment corridors in Africa: Making the voices of women and smallholder farmers count(UWC PLAAS, 2023) Sulle, Emmanuel; Smalley, RebeccaDevelopment 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.Item 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, MarthaThe 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.Item 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.Item Agriculture, value chains and the rural non-farm economy in Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe(Spinger Nature, 2019) du Toit, AndriesThis 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.Item 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, YachikaThe 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.Item The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA and the occupation of the Guinea Savannah(2015) Greenberg, StephenThe 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”Item Alternative food networks and food insecurity in South Africa(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-06) Haysom, GarethFood 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.Item 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, RuthPLAAS 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.Item An Analysis of Renunciation in Terms of s 2(C)(1) of the Wills Act 7 of 1953 in Light of the Moosa NO and Others v Harnaker and Others Judgment(Electronic Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (EJIMEL), 2019-05-29) Abduroaf, MuneerMuslims have been living in South Africa for over 300 years. These persons are required in terms of their religion to fol-low Islamic law. There has (to date) been no legislation enacted by the South African parliament that gives effect to Islamic law. South African Muslims are able to make use of existing South African law provisions in order to apply certain Islam-ic laws within the South African context. An example of this would be where a testator or testatrix makes use of the South African common law right to freedom of testation in order to ensure that his or her estate is distributed in terms of the Islamic law of succession upon his or her demise (Islamic will). This would ensure that his or her beneficiaries would inherit from his or her estate in terms of the Islamic law of succession. A potential problem could arise in the event where a beneficiary who inherits in terms of an Islamic will, renounces a benefit. Should the Islamic law or South African law consequences of renunciation apply? This paper critically analyses a recent South African High Court judgment where the issue of renunciation of a benefit in terms of an Islamic will was looked at.Item ANC election manifesto in relation to rural development and land reform(PLAAS, 2009-06) PLAASIn the last 15 years the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) has set out to achieve many things but, by its own admission, has been unsuccessful in meeting its objectives for land reform. Hence a few questions arise. Is land reform failing? With a new administration in place, is it possible to influence a new rural vision to transform the imbalances in the countryside with clearer and achievable alternatives for sustainable agrarian reform under the ambit of the ANC’s renewed focus on rural development and agrarian reform? Does the shift in the institutional arrangements provide an opportunity to assess the possibilities for a new direction for land reform and agriculture?