South Africa’s Agrarian Question Hubert Cochet, Ward Anseeuw, Sandrine Freguin - Gresh To cite this version: Hubert Cochet, Ward Anseeuw, Sandrine Freguin - Gresh. South Africa’s Agrarian Question. HSRC Press, 358 p., 2015. hal-01376094 HAL Id: hal-01376094 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01376094 Submitted on 15 May 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. South Africa’sa’s agrarian question www.hsrcpress.ac.za SAAQ.indb 1 2015/12/18 9:39 AM South Africa’s agrarian question www.hsrcpress.ac.za Hubert Cochet, Ward Anseeuw, Sandrine Fréguin–Gresh SAAQ.indb 2 2015/12/18 9:39 AM South Africa’s agrarian question www.hsrcpress.ac.za Hubert Cochet, Ward Anseeuw, Sandrine Fréguin–Gresh SAAQ.indb 3 2015/12/18 9:39 AM Published by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpress.ac.za First published 2015 ISBN (soft cover) 978-0-7969-2512-1 ISBN (pdf) 978-0-7969-2523-7 © 2015 Human Sciences Research Council This book has undergone a double-blind independent peer-review process overseen by the HSRC Press Editorial Board. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Human Sciences Research Council (the Council) or indicate that the Council endorses the views of the authors. 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SAAQ.indb 4 2015/12/18 9:39 AM www.hsrcpress.ac.za SAAQ.indb 5 2015/12/18 9:39 AM Contents List of figures xvi List of tables xxii List of boxes xxiii List of photographs xxiii Acronyms and abbreviations xxiv Preface xxvi Introduction: South Africa’s agrarian question 1 Hubert Cochet, Ward Anseeuw and Sandrine Fréguin-Gresh 2014: Reflecting on the country’s agrarian transition 2 A focus on South Africa’s agrarian reform 3 An agrarian diagnosis approach: A long-term approach acknowledging farm diversity 5 Extensive fieldwork: Revealing the realities on the ground 7 Structure of the book 8 1 The planned destruction of ‘black’ agriculture 12 Hubert Cochet Overview of previous production systems 12 First signs of distress 13 Land grabbing and the further weakening of black agriculture 14 Ciskei and Transkei 15 www.hsrcpress.ac.za KwaZulu 16 Crocodile River Valley (Brits) 16 Lowlands of the northern and eastern regions of the former Transvaal 16 ‘Agricultural development’ planning for black people 17 Betterment plan and normative agricultural planning 17 Nwanedzi Valley (Limpopo) 20 New Forest village 20 Promoting a small black farming elite in the bantustans 21 Bantustan of Bophuthatswana 21 Alluvial terraces of the Kat River (Eastern Cape) 22 Bantustan of Gazankulu 22 Emergence of sugar cane smallholdings in the black spots of KwaZulu 23 Cutting off access to the national agrofood system 23 Conclusion: An alarming state of disrepair 24 2 Agrarian reform in South Africa: Objectives, evolutions and results at national level 28 Ward Anseeuw, Frikkie Liebenberg and Johann Kirsten South Africa’s agricultural liberalisation, deregulation and the institutional restructuring of the public sector 30 vi SAAQ.indb 6 2015/12/18 9:39 AM Deracialisation of the agricultural sector and South Africa’s spatial configuration 33 South Africa’s land reform programmes 34 Land restitution 34 Land tenure reform 34 Land redistribution 34 Two phases of land reform 35 First phase (1994–1999): Land policies focusing on the establishment of subsistence farmers and food security 35 Second phase (1999–2004): Land policy aiming at creating small-scale commercial farmers 35 Shifting from land to agrarian reform and the development of emerging black farmers 36 A preliminary attempt towards spatial reform 39 South Africa’s persisting dualistic agricultural structure 40 Disappointing results of the country’s land and agrarian reforms 41 A stagnating sector becoming more and more concentrated 44 Conclusion: Towards effective agrarian reform in South Africa? 47 3 Analysing productive processes and performances of agriculture at local scale in South Africa: How to proceed? 52 Sandrine Fréguin-Gresh and Hubert Cochet Agrarian diagnosis: Origin of the approach and key concepts 53 The agrarian system: A complex and multidimensional concept 54 Cropping, livestock and production systems: Concepts leading to unavoidable embedding of analytical scales 54 The notions of livelihood or activity system: Are they complementary or www.hsrcpress.ac.za contradictory to the production system? 56 The agrarian diagnosis explained in light of its application in South Africa 57 Selecting a study area 57 Studying historical dynamics and reconstructing production systems’ trajectories 59 Analysing the production systems from a technical and economic perspective 59 Selecting study areas 60 Characteristics of the study areas and their local problematics 62 Defining and delimiting the study area 64 Characterising the mode of exploitation of the environment 65 Selecting production units to be studied in detail and sampling 67 Characterising the technical operation and measuring the economic efficiency of the production systems 68 Value added and productivity 69 Distribution of value added and farm income 70 Placing production systems in the socio-economic and institutional sphere of the agrarian system 71 vii SAAQ.indb 7 2015/12/18 9:39 AM 4 The interlinked but continuously divergent production systems of the catchment area of the Nwanedzi River (Limpopo province) 76 Mathieu Boche and Maud Anjuère Agro-climatic conditions and importance of agriculture 77 Historical background, land tenure and socio-economic characteristics 77 Market proximity, off-farm jobs and contract farming opportunities 77 Landscape examination and zoning 78 Historical dynamics 80 First white settlements in tribal lands and early division of land 80 From eradication of malaria to the implementation of the first pro-white agriculture policies 81 The golden age of white agriculture and the reinforcement of segregation policies 84 The agrarian crisis of the 1980/90s: In or out the system 86 Post-apartheid reforms and restructuring of markets 87 Typology of production systems 88 Thirteen production systems grouped in seven broad categories 88 Subsistence micro-farmers cultivating residential starchy staples in gardens for self-consumption, depending on off-farm incomes (subgroups 1, 2, 3 and 5) 88 Micro-farmers depending on off-farm income, combining staples for self- consumption and vegetables for local markets (subgroup 4) 88 Small-scale producers of staple crops depending on off-farm activities and social grants (subgroup 6) 89 Medium-scale commercial farmers specialised in vegetable production for the local and domestic markets (subgroups 7, 8, 9 and 10) 89 www.hsrcpress.ac.za Extensive commercial farmers, producers of fruits mainly for the domestic market (subgroup 11) 90 Intensive large-scale commercial producers of fruits and vegetables for the domestic and export markets (subgroup 12) 90 Emerging industrial broiler producers (subgroup 13) 90 Economic results 91 Land productivity 91 Labour productivity 92 Household income 93 Conclusion and perspectives 95 5 Constrained potential: Intensive agriculture in the Hazyview region (Mpumalanga) 98 Hélène Regourd Study area 98 Agro-ecological characterisation 100 Subtropical climate 100 Tropical and subtropical crops 100 Landscape and river system 101 viii SAAQ.indb 8 2015/12/18 9:39 AM Geology and soils 102 River system and hydraulic systems: The different irrigation schemes of the former ‘white areas’ 102 White Waters Irrigation Board (Da Gama Dam) – Zone 3 102 Sabie River Irrigation Board – Zones 1 and 2 102 Farmers in Kiepersol 102 History 104 From the 19th century until the end of World War II 104 1950–1970: ‘White farming’ boom, forced removals and creation of irrigation schemes 105 Boom of white ‘commercial’ farming after World War II 105 Black farmers confined into homelands without irrigation 105 Black farmers confined into homelands with irrigation 106 From 1970 to the end of apartheid 106 Creation of bantustans and explosion of the population density 106 Modification of the production systems 107 The situation since 1994 107 Tourism boom and explosion of macadamias 107 Access to irrigation in the former bantustan ..