For the last fifteen years, debates about agricultural policy and land reform in South Africa have been somewhat disconnected. On the one hand, arguments for land reform find their justification in the inequitable and racially skewed land distribution inherited from Apartheid. On the other, agricultural policy has assumed a technologically advanced agricultural sector, using capital-intensive, industrial farming methods, highly integrated into transnational commodity chains. As a result, there has not been a good fit between land reform and agricultural policy: many land reform projects have languished in the ‘post transfer’ period, and some argue that agricultural investment has been inhibited by the uncertainty caused by lagging land reform.

This lack of fit needs to be addressed: rural development requires that both land reform policy and agricultural development are guided by a single coherent vision of what a future South African farmed landscape should look like. This need is intensified and made more urgent by recent developments: the global food price crisis, rising energy costs and the threat of climate change have emphasised the importance of ensuring not only that our farming sector can feed all who live in South Africa, but that it enables urban and rural livelihoods that allow poor South Africans opportunities to escape from poverty.

In this context, PLAAS and Amandla Publishers invite you to participate in a public debate exploring different viewpoints around these and related questions. Role players from different sectors of South African society will be invited to put across their views on the question: What vision of a future South African farmed landscape should inform agricultural and land policy? A small number of key presentations by leading speakers will set out some of the divergent viewpoints, but debate and participation from the floor will be encouraged.

SPEAKERS

Welcome Address by Andries du Toit Deputy Director, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)	DOWNLOAD SPEECH TRANSCRIPT
Thozi Gwanya Director General of the Department of Land Affairs
Ruth Hall Senior Researcher, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)
Mazibuko Jara Amandla! Publishers
Andrew Makenete President of the Southern African Biofuels Association
Fatima Shabodien (chair) Director, Women on Farms Project