A methodology to evaluate the contribution of small-scale farms to the vision of regulating authorities

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa's system of socio-economic development planning is complex andine ective. There are many regulatory authorities involved, often with unclearresponsibilities and inadequate procedures of implementing objectives.Planning for development in South Africa needs to take various factors intoaccount. Economic growth is pursued, while social imbalances are addressedand the environment is protected against unreasonable damage. The termSustainable Development is an important concept in the vision of many ofthe regulating authorities, however, the implementation of sustainability isdi cult. This study considers an approach which aligns activities in a specifi ed region to the vision and objectives of the applicable regulatory authorities,as an alternative to achieving objectives strictly through enforcing regulations.This thesis developed an integrated evaluation model which can be used toevaluate the alignment of a small-scale farm to the visions and objectives ofcertain regulatory authorities. Four small-scale farms in the Letaba catchmentof the Limpopo Province were used as a case study to be evaluatedagainst national and regional development visions. On a national level theNational Development Plan (NDP), the National Framework for SustainableDevelopment (NFSD), the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy(ISRDS) and the principles of Water Allocation Reform (WAR) were regarded.For regional categorisation, the relevant municipal Integrated DevelopmentPlan (IDP), Spatial Development Framework (SDF), Local EconomicDevelopment (LED) plan and the applicable Catchment Management Strategy (CMS) were considered.The Letaba catchment area has speci c development constraints regardingwater. For this reason, the impact the four farms have on the water of theregion was evaluated in addition to their alignment with regional developmentvisions. The hydrological evaluations were performed through the use of theSoil and Water Assessment Tool. Hereby it was determined whether objectivesof development planning were realistic in terms of water availability. It wasestablished that the location of a farm is a determining factor of the impact ithas on the catchment area's water supply.The developed Integrated Evaluation Model combined all the visions and objectivesof the mentioned strategic documents to speci cally assess the contributiona small-scale farm makes. The evaluation results provide insight intothe alignment of activities to the ideals of a region and can be useful when formulatingactions to reach a common vision. Small-scale farms are well-alignedto the objectives of WAR, the CMS and ISRDS. The farms have a limitedcontribution to the ideals of the NDP and NFSD and results against the IDP,the SDF and the LED di er considerably for each farm. Furthermore, theresults of the farms' alignment with regional objectives do not correspond tothe hydrologically ideal locations. Therefore, the development of small-scalefarming should take hydrological information into consideration.The Integrated Evaluation Model proves to be valuable, understandable andapplicable to evaluate the alignment of small-scale farms to the visions ofregulatory authorities.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University