Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Compiled by the Employment and Economic Policy Research Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council Published by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpress.ac.za © 2005 Human Sciences Research Council First published 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0-7969-2100-8 Cover by Flame Design Copy edited by Susan de Villiers Typeset by Jenny Wheeldon Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver Marketing and Distribution PO Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, 7966, South Africa Tel: +27 +21 701-4477 Fax: +27 +21 701-7302 email: orders@blueweaver.co.za Distributed worldwide, except Africa, by Independent Publishers Group 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610, USA www.ipgbook.com To order, call toll-free: 1-800-888-4741 All other enquiries, Tel: +1 +312-337-0747 Fax: +1 +312-337-5985 email: Frontdesk@ipgbook.com Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za CONTENTS List of Tables v List of Figures vii Contributors viii Acknowledgements ix Acronyms x 1 Introduction 1 2 Limpopo Province Case Study — Themba Mthethwa 3 2.1 Introduction 3 2.2 The context of Limpopo province 3 2.3 The Dihlophaneng community 4 2.4 The Depaarl Agricultural Project 9 2.5 Dendron 11 2.6 Summary 14 2.7 References 15 3 Western Cape Case Study — Andries du Toit 17 3.1 Introduction 17 3.2 The Western Cape: a context 18 3.3 The agricultural labour market 20 3.4 Off-farm poverty 32 3.5 Policy issues 42 3.6 References 43 4 Eastern Cape Case Study — Cobus de Swardt 45 4.1 Introduction 45 4.2 Overview of the Mount Frere District and description of the Mount Frere research 46 4.3 The utilisation of land among subsistence and other small-scale agriculturalists 47 4.4 Sketching the socio-economic environment as a background to micro-enterprise development 53 4.5 Government policies and initiatives to promote the rural economy 60 4.6 Concluding recommendations 64 4.7 References 65 5 Kwazulu-Natal Case Study — Themba Mbhele & Michael Aliber 67 5.1 Introduction 67 5.2 A statistical overview of the sectors 67 5.3 Skhonyana 71 5.4 Macambini 73 5.5 Amahlubi 75 5.6 Amanyuswa 77 5.7 Umzumbe 79 5.8 Summary 80 5.9 Appendix: Summary notes on focus group interviews 81 5.10 References 85 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za 6 Synthesis and Conclusions — Michael Aliber 87 6.1 Introduction 87 6.2 Labour absorption in commercial agriculture 87 6.3 The subsistence/small-scale agriculture sector 90 6.4 The rural micro-enterprise sector 99 6.5 Government projects 105 6.6 Conclusion 108 6.7 References 109 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za v ©HSRC 2005 Table 2.1 Summary of assets within the Dihlophaneng community 5 Table 2.2 Factors influencing the trend in subsistence and small-scale production in Dihlophaneng 7 Table 2.3 Duration of business and employment trends at Dendron 13 Table 3.1 A profile of the farms surveyed, by district and main activity 21 Table 3.2 Reported changes to permanent labour force in 1997–2000 22 Table 3.3 Planned changes to permanent labour force 23 Table 3.4 Labour usage per hectare for various categories of labour 24 Table 3.5 A comparison of labour intensity for regular and seasonal labour 25 Table 3.6 Use of labour for businesses with/without a packing house or cellar 26 Table 3.7 Main sources of temporary labour 27 Table 3.8 Gender and racial composition of permanent labour force and harvesting teams 27 Table 3.9 Proportion of farms using labour contractors 28 Table 3.10 Tasks performed by contractors on farms that used contractors 29 Table 3.11 Distribution of empty houses on farms surveyed 31 Table 3.12 Stated future plans for housing on farms 31 Table 3.13 Gender and site distribution of adults in Ceres survey 34 Table 3.14 Places from which adults have moved in previous five years (percentages) 34 Table 3.15 Most important employment sectors for those with access to paid employment 35 Table 3.16 Access to land for agricultural use (percentage of households) 36 Table 3.17 Households reporting hungry periods 37 Table 3.18 Employment status of adults, showing gender distribution 39 Table 3.19 Gender distribution of individuals spending more than an hour a day on key activities 40 Table 3.20 Individuals receiving various types of grants (of entire sample) and mean per household grant income for households receiving 41 Table 3.21 Percentages of adults reported as self-employed 41 Table 4.1 Livestock ownership percentages within the categories 49 Table 4.2 The distribution of large livestock ownership and income comparison 49 Table 4.3 Food items in order of frequency (Food Security Survey, August 2002) 51 Table 4.4 Income categories, hunger periods, and food security relative to the previous year 53 Table 4.5 Tasks adults perform on average for more than one hour per day 54 Table 4.6 Years of education in relation to paid work 55 Table 4.7 Sources of income 56 v ©HSRC 2005 LIST OF TABLES Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Skills Development in Very Small and Micro Enterprises vi ©HSRC 2005 Table 4.8 Total monthly expenses 57 Table 4.9 Amount of savings by households 58 Table 4.10 Amount of debts held by households 58 Table 4.11 Disasters suffered by households in the past 12 months 60 Table 4.12 Comparing average number of large livestock in households with and without social grants 62 Table 4.13 Average difference of a Basic Income Grant to the different income categories 63 Table 5.1 Composition of the agricultural labour force in KwaZulu-Natal 68 Table 5.2 Sub-categories of hired labour 68 Table 5.3 Transitions into and out of agriculture in KwaZulu-Natal 69 Table 5.4 Main reasons for engaging in agriculture, KwaZulu-Natal 69 Table 5.5 Composition of the rural micro-enterprise sector in KwaZulu-Natal 70 Table 5.6 Estimated numbers of individuals moving into and out of self-employment in micro-enterprise, KwaZulu-Natal 71 Table 5.7 Summary of estimates of participation in various economic sectors, KwaZulu-Natal 71 Table 6.1 Share of household income derived from agriculture (percentages) 90 Table 6.2 Reasons for engaging in agriculture (percentages) 91 Table 6.3 Transition matrix of black rural adults who did and did not farm in two consecutive years 92 Table 6.4 Row percentages for black households’ transitions into, out of, and within agriculture 94 Table 6.5 Changes in household incomes for selected transitions 95 Table 6.6 Estimated numbers of households moving into and out of production for an extra source of food 96 Table 6.7 Incidence of employment and unemployment among black African and coloured people, rural versus urban, 2002 100 Table 6.8 Transition matrix of rural adults by labour force status in two consecutive years (percentages) 101 Table 6.9 Changes in household incomes for transitions between labour force status 102 Table 6.10 Average percentage change in the number of household members having employment in relation to individuals’ transitions between labour force status 103 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Year-on-year fluctuations in regular agricultural employment 21 Figure 3.2 Seasonal fluctuations in labour use for various sectors 26 Figure 3.3 Month-by-month fluctuations in average incomes 37 Figure 3.4 Aggregated months with sufficient food (households as % of entire sample) 38 Figure 3.5 Month-by-month breakdown of hungry periods 38 Figure 4.1 Sources of drinking water in Mount Frere District 47 Figure 4.2 Maize harvest quantities during 2001 48 Figure 4.3 Comparison of livestock ownership and income between the top, middle and bottom third of livestock owners 50 Figure 4.4 Comparing food expenditure between top, middle and bottom income groups 52 Figure 4.5 Comparing gender differences in paid employment categories 55 Figure 4.6 Impact of existing social grants on households 61 Figure 6.1 Trends in commercial farm employment 87 Figure 6.2 Comparison of transitions into and out of agriculture by individuals versus by households 92 Figure 6.3 Transitions into and out of agriculture for RSA and four provinces, based on the household approach 93 vii ©HSRC 2005 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za viii ©HSRC 2005 Michael Aliber, Integrated Rural and Regional Development Research Programme, Human Sciences Research Council. Cobus de Swardt, formerly Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape, now Transparency International, Berlin, Germany. Andries du Toit, Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape. Themba Mbhele, independent consultant, KwaZulu-Natal. Themba Mthethwa, Discipline of Development Studies, formerly University of the North, now University of Limpopo. CONTRIBUTORS Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za ix ©HSRC 2005 This project was made possible by Miriam Altman, Executive Director of the HSRC’s Employment and Economic Policy Research Programme, who both motivated for it and provided for it financially out of the Programme’s budget. For the field research in Limpopo Province, we would like to acknowledge the important role played by Mr Isaac Kwaw, in the Discipline of Development Studies at the University of the North, as well as the assistance of two students, Ms M Kola and Mr J Mathabatha. For the Western Cape and Eastern Cape studies, we would like to acknowledge the Chronic Poverty Research Centre of the University of Manchester, in partnership with which much of the fieldwork used in the chapters was conducted. For the Western Cape case study, we also wish to express thanks to the Centre for Rural Legal Studies, which commissioned some of the earlier research that the Western Cape chapter relies upon. For the KwaZulu-Natal case study, we would like to acknowledge the organisational assistance of Jennifer van Rensburg. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix ©HSRC 2005 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za x ©HSRC 2005 x ©HSRC 2005 ACRONYMS ABET Adult Basic Education and Training AMS Agricultural Management Service ANC African National Congress ARDC Agricultural Rural Development Corporation BIG Universal Basic Income Grant CBPWP Community Based Public Works Programme CPRC Chronic Poverty Research Centre CRLS Centre for Rural Legal Studies CWSS Community Water Supply and Sanitation Programme DBSA Development Bank of Southern Africa DFID Department for International Development ESTA Extension of Security of Tenure Act GEIS General Export Incentive Scheme HDI Human Development Index HSRC Human Sciences Research Council IDMP Institute for Development Policy and Management IFP Inkatha Freedom Party KIDS KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study LAC Lebowa Agricultural Corporation LED local economic development LIMPAFU Limpopo African Farmers Union LIMPUST Limpopo Province Agriculture Strategic Team LRAD land restitution and development NAFCOC National African Federated Chamber of Commerce PLAAS Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies SALDRU South African Labour and Development Research Unit SLAG Settlement/Land Acquisition Grant TAU Transvaal Agricultural Union TNC transnational corporations Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za [...]... and Policy Challenges in the Rural Economy According to the respondent small-scale farmers, the previous government divided their land into trust land and communal land The farmers argued that trust land had more potential for development and that most previous government or homeland services to farmers during apartheid were, in fact, concentrated within the trust lands There were no services within... of the total population living in rural areas in 2001, down slightly from 88.5 per cent in 1996 (The second most rural province is Eastern Cape, at 61.2 per cent.) This reflects the fact that Limpopo’s economy is relatively nonindustrial, with its two main primary sectors – agriculture and mining – accounting 3 ©HSRC 2005 Trends and Policy Challenges in the Rural Economy for the major share of the. .. course of the research This chapter will discuss these in its concluding section 17 ©HSRC 2005 Trends and Policy Challenges in the Rural Economy Structure of this report The history of social relations on farms and in rural districts forms an essential backdrop to any understanding of the nature and direction of change in the agricultural and rural economy of the Western Cape This paper, therefore,... of intangibles (brands and intellectual property) in determining the nature and implications of corporate strategy; and • The increasing sophistication of the technologies (information technology and social technologies) used in the private monitoring and auditing of supply chains, and the development of new and complex kinds of quality regulation (Raikes & Gibbon 2000; Du Toit & Ewert 2002) Raikes and. .. pressure on prices, increased levels of risk and uncertainty and raised direct and indirect costs at home Fourth, the transition to democracy has itself impacted powerfully on producers, and on their perceptions of themselves and their relation to the state The worldview and 19 ©HSRC 2005 Trends and Policy Challenges in the Rural Economy self-perception of the white landed elite and its culture of mastery... – the analysis draws mainly on ongoing research into chronic poverty in the Mount Frere District, with particular attention to land utilisation and changing livelihood strategies KwaZulu-Natal – five sites were identified for primary research (involving mainly key informant and focus group interviews): Skhonyana, Macambini and Amahlubi, each in the north of the province, and two sites in the southern... allegation that there is manipulation of prices of maize and other food crops; • Increased fuel prices; and • Weather uncertainty in the absence of a clear drought relief system The farmers explained that the removal of subsidies and the dismantling of the marketing boards have affected them more than the other factors listed above They pointed out that the price of maize is quoted in dollars The farmers... In addition to primary data, the analysis also depends to some extent on other recent studies in the areas, not least research on the small business sector in and around Dendron (Kwaw & Mthethwa 2001) 2.2 The context of Limpopo province Limpopo province is overwhelmingly rural (De Villiers 1997; Northern Province 1997) In fact, according to the census, Limpopo is by far the most rural province in the. .. at the Cape during the 17th and 18th centuries (Elphick 1977) Colonial conquest and support for land acquisition by settler farmers meant that, in the course of a century, most of the arable land in the west of the Cape Colony (as it then was) fell under settler control This provided the underpinnings for the development, over the years, of a settled and distinct white rural landed elite, bound together... of the research, and their owners interviewed All five businesses in Dihlophaneng involve the retailing of groceries and other goods purchased from wholesalers in Polokwane One of the businesses also retails beer and liquor The general observation is that most of the businesses in Dihlophaneng are struggling to survive The common symptom is that, over time, customer numbers have been falling and the . research (involving mainly key informant and focus group interviews): Skhonyana, Macambini and Amahlubi, each in the north of the province, and two sites in the southern part of the province, namely. www.hsrcpress.ac.za Trends and Policy Challenges in the Rural Economy 6 ©HSRC 2005 The community was optimistic that it would be successful in mobilising for the installation of electricity in the area. If they. poor and erratic weather conditions, including both floods and droughts in the past few years. Together with the decline in employment, interviewees felt that crime had increased over the years,