Typology of smallholder farming in South Africa's former homelands : towards an appropriate classification system

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The agriculture sector continues to be viewed as a vehicle through which economic growthand development can be achieved; particularly for developing economies. This view isincorporated in South Africa's rural development framework in the National DevelopmentPlan, which indicated that this sector will be the main driver in developing the country's ruraleconomies. However, the South African agricultural sector is known to be dualistic;consisting of a large-scale commercial and a small-scale subsistence sector. This study isparticularly focused on smallholder farming in South Africa, which have developed as aresult of the decades of government intervention that have guided reform driven by thegeneral political and economic philosophy of white domination. The most notableinterventions, which drew the line between white and black landholding, were the Natives' LandActs of 1913 and 1936, followed by various policy interventions to support White, large-scaleagriculture.The question remains whether or not an expanded smallholder sector can significantlycontribute to rural development, employment creation and poverty reduction in the formerhomeland areas of South Africa. In order to answer this question, the need arises for reliabledata on smallholder farming, conceptual clarification on definitions of 'smallholder or'small-scale farmers and diversity among farming systems needs to be taken into account.These considerations are crucial in order to design and implement effective rural developmentpolicies.One way of addressing this question is the use of farm typologies. Given the diversity that existswithin agricultural systems, various schemes of classification have been developed andevolved over time. The objective of this study is to provide an empirical framework thatwould classify smallholder farmers in the former homeland areas of South Africa accordingto their livelihood strategies. This study seeks to achieve the objective in three distinct ways.Firstly, by giving a broad overview of the smallholder sector in South Africa. Secondly, byutilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques to identify farming householdssituated in the former homeland areas, using the General Household Survey (GHS) and theIncome and Expenditure Survey (IES). Thirdly, apply multivariate statistical techniques,specifically Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA), to develop theultimate classification system.The results from both typologies suggested eight distinct types or groups of farminghouseholds in the former homeland areas. Important findings suggest that higher salaryincomes are crucial for the enablement of households to market their produce. Social grantswere found to be key in determining livelihood strategies among faming households, mostnotably old age and child support grants. One of the groups that were identified was typicallyfood insecure, with their agricultural production not sufficiently feeding the household.Lastly, direct agricultural support from the government was clearly focused on livestockservices which placed a minority of households at a distinct advantage to sell produce to themarket.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University