One of the strongest arguments for market-based land reform is that it creates opportunities for growth in agricultural production that will reduce poverty. However, market-based approaches to land reform have been strongly criticised.

Land reform is a key challenge facing post-apartheid South Africa. In 1996, less than one percent of the population owned 80 percent of farmland. Over 5.3 million black South Africans lived on commercial farms owned by white people, without any security of tenure. Land reform was an essential feature of the new South African constitution.

The South African government adopted a market-based approach to land reform, in line with World Bank advice and international trends. However, non-governmental organisations, social movements and trades unions argue that market-based models do not benefit small producers or poor rural people and do not change property rights or power relations. Land reform programmes in South Africa have attempted to balance these different views. While people involved in the liberation struggle demanded redistribution, it was important to do this without losing capital and skills from the country.

Research from the Nkuzi Development Association, published by the University of the Western Cape Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, South Africa, focuses on the redistribution of land in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Since 2001, the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) programme has been the primary mechanism for land reform. Instead of giving grants to poor, subsistence farmers, LRAD promotes a black commercial farming sector and demands financial contributions from beneficiaries who receive grants and sometimes additional loans to buy land. The more money beneficiaries can contribute, the larger the grants they can receive.

This approach has many weaknesses:

• Most of the land acquired was state land already used by black farmers, therefore doing little to alter racial inequalities in land access or the structure of the agricultural sector.
• There has been no change in the nature of farming operations, which are largely commercial.
• The average grant received by men is 25 percent greater than those received by women.
• The average amount of land acquired by men through the programme is 450 percent greater than by women.

The LRAD in Limpopo is a two-tier programme. Poorer beneficiaries, who tend to apply in groups for grants, receive an average of eight hectares of land each. Meanwhile, a small number of individuals have acquired portions of land averaging close to 700 hectares each. While LRAD has set new targets for the amount of land to be redistributed, budget allocations for implementation have been reduced to a fraction of what is needed.

There is a widespread perception that many or all land reform projects are failing in terms of production. But despite the problems identified, none of the LRAD projects in Limpopo have seen a decline in production since the transfer of land. However, there are still considerable challenges to promoting equitable land reform:

• There is no open process for the selection of LRAD beneficiaries. Good political connections are more important than market forces. 
• No programmes exist for landless people without substantial financial resources to buy land. 
• The programme creates an inequality between beneficiaries who acquire state land and those who acquire private land.
• Poor project design and the lack of effective support for new farmers contributes to projects not achieveing their full development potential.

Source(s):
‘A critical appraisal of South Africa’s market-based land reform policy: the case of the Land Redistribution for Agriculture Development (LRAD) programme in Limpopo’ Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies Research Report No. 19 by Marc Wegerif, December 2004 Full document.

Funded by: Nkuzi Development Association

id21 Research Highlight: 30 November 2005

Further Information:
Marc Wegerif
Nkuzi Development Association
P.O.Box 5970
Polokwane North
0750
South Africa

Tel: +27 12 323 6417 
Fax: +27 12 323 8793
Contact the contributor: marc@nkuzi.org.za

Nkuzi Development Association, South Africa

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