The case for re-strategising spending priorities to support small-scale farmers in South Africa
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Date
2010-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape
Abstract
This paper summarises what is known about South Africa’s public expenditure trends in respect of small-scale farmers, and discusses the growing contradictions between the policy priority placed on small-scale farming and the adequacy of support provided to small-scale farmers. It then proceeds to argue that: i) dramatic increases in public expenditure support to small-scale agriculture are highly unlikely, while further incremental increases to support the sector will in themselves make little difference; ii) a lot of the money already available to support small-scale agriculture is not well spent, with a particular imbalance evident between relatively large amounts of support to badly conceptualised land reform projects at the expense of black farmers in the ex-Bantustans; iii) there is an urgent need to shift the emphasis of support from on-farm infrastructure and inputs, to community-level infrastructure, market development and institutional re-engineering.
Description
Keywords
Expenditure trends, Small-scale farming, On-farm infrastructure, Community-level infrastructure, Market development
Citation
Aliber, M., Hall, R. (2010). ‘The case for re-strategising spending priorities to support small-scale farmers in South Africa’, Working Paper 17. PLAAS, UWC, Cape Town.