In South Africa’s Limpopo Province, deagriculturalisation (a declining share of agriculture in both workforce and output) has led to unemployment and rural dependency. One theory suggests that land redistribution could help to create agricultural growth and jobs, leading to increased incomes from rural non-farm activities. Can South Africa improve rural development outcomes through small-scale farming?

Research from the University of Sussex, UK, and the University of Pretoria, South Africa, examines how land inequality in poor countries affects agricultural employment. The researchers highlight the impact of what they call ‘premature deagriculturalisation’ on rural livelihoods in the former homeland area of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Their survey covers 585 households from three Limpopo regions: West, South and Central. The results are compared to similar data from Rajasthan in India.

Farmland in South Africa is very unevenly distributed, especially in Limpopo Province. This happened mainly because of political land seizures (the forced removal of black farmers from their land under apartheid). Smallholdings have been displaced by larger, more capital-intensive farms requiring less labour.

Agriculture usually plays an important role in the development process. It stimulates change as poor countries’ economies move from being primarily agricultural towards a manufacturing or service based economy. But in Limpopo, the loss of farming jobs happened too soon. New, non-farm livelihood opportunities had not yet developed sufficiently to provide people in rural areas with alternative ways of earning an income. This has led to severe unemployment and a heavy dependency on income from outside rural areas, mainly migrant remittances and pensions.

The research finds that:

• In poor countries, severe land inequality is associated with a lower workforce share in agriculture.
• In Limpopo, only 43 percent of income is from local sources (compared with 83 percent in Rajasthan).
• Shares of income (8 percent) and assets associated with agriculture (22 percent) in Limpopo are very low.
• 59 percent of households are dependent on either migrant remittances (32 percent) or pension income (27 percent).
• Male unemployment averages 60 percent, and is higher in households dependent on outside income.
• In the West Limpopo region, where land is more evenly distributed, income and assets associated with agriculture are significantly higher, poverty and unemployment are markedly lower, and dependency on outside income is less.

About three-quarters of South Africa’s poor people live in rural areas. Rural poverty is particularly high in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape provinces, where 44 percent of the country’s poor people live. Does the experience of the West region of Limpopo Province suggest that land reform and farming development could contribute to poverty reduction in some of South Africa’s poorest regions?

The researchers conclude that:

• Opportunities for non-farm jobs in South Africa are limited.
• Land redistribution, together with support services for farmers, has been successful in reducing unemployment in other parts of the world (for example, Latin America).
• Greater land equity and support for small-scale farming could help generate broad-based growth and poverty reduction in South Africa.

Source(s):
‘Premature Deagriculturalisation? Land Inequality and Rural Dependency in Limpopo Province, South Africa’, Journal of Development Studies 42:8, pages 1325-1349, by Robert Eastwood, Johann Kirsten and Michael Lipton, 2006
HINARI subscribers can access the full-text article here Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 9 March 2007

Further Information:
Robert Eastwood
Department of Economics
Arts Building E
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton
BN1 9SN
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1273 606755 ext.2471
Fax: +44 (0)1273 673563
Contact the contributor: R.K.Eastwood@sussex.ac.uk

Department of Economics, University of Sussex, UK

Johann Kirsten
Dept of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development
University of Pretoria
Pretoria 0002
South Africa

Tel: +27 12 4203248
Fax: +27 12 4204958
Contact the contributor: johann.kirsten@up.ac.za

University of Pretoria, South Africa

Michael Lipton
Department of Economics
Arts Building E
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton
BN1 9SN, UK

Tel: +44 1273 606755 ext.2249
Fax: +44 (0)1273 673563
Contact the contributor: m.lipton@sussex.ac.uk

Department of Economics, University of Sussex, UK

Other related links:
'The impact of land reform in South Africa'

'Connecting economies: agrarian reform and rural poverty in South Africa'

'The crisis of land distribution in Southern Africa'

'The right kind of land reform: lessons from South Africa'

'Encouraging non-farm activities for poverty reduction in Georgia, Armenia and Romania'