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WORKSHOP: Can land and agrarian reform in South Africa create opportunities for smallholder farmers and help reduce rural poverty?
| What | Workshop |
|---|---|
| When |
2012-02-28 08:00
2012-02-28 17:00
2012-02-28 from 08:00 to 17:00 |
| Where | President Hotel, Cape Town |
| Contact Name | Ms Arlene Grossberg |
| Contact Email | acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za |
| Contact Phone | 012 302 2811 |
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Hosted by the DST/NRF South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, together with the Human Sciences Research Council
Land reform in South Africa is in crisis. The importance of land reform for addressing a legacy of dispossession and rural poverty is accepted by all, and together with rural development, it is one of government’s key priorities. But it is also clear that a great many land reform projects have failed to improve the incomes and livelihoods of beneficiaries, in part because of inadequate or poorly designed policies and support programmes, in part due to poor linkages between different departments and levels of government. In response, some analysts argue that redistribution or restitution of land rights needs to be complemented by imaginative agrarian reform interventions, which support the emergence of productive, market-oriented small-scale farmers, both in land reform contexts and in the former reserves (Aliber and Hall 2010). This will require a stronger and more effective link between land and agricultural policies. Similar thinking informs the National Growth Path framework, which suggests that government will aim to create 300 000 ‘smallholder opportunities’ by 2020, partly through the restructuring of land reform.
A broad consensus is emerging across South African society that supporting smallholder farmers through land reform is a critically important issue, but few detailed proposals for how to actually achieve this in practice are on the table. Public dialogue on these issues is fragmented or ill-informed. Policy makers are not always aware of rigorous research evidence that can assist in the design of appropriate policies and programmes. Researchers use competing analytical frameworks and disagree on the policy implications of their findings. The efforts of civil society and private sector organisations are often unco-ordinated and poorly linked to government programmes. All these stakeholders have important things to say, but there are few opportunities at present for them to share their perspectives, consider the available evidence, and discuss what it all means for policy and practice.
This small and focused workshop will bring together leading researchers, policy makers and a range of other stakeholders to debate these questions in depth and suggest lessons for the way forward.
Land reform in South Africa is in crisis. The importance of land reform for addressing a legacy of dispossession and rural poverty is accepted by all, and together with rural development, it is one of government’s key priorities. But it is also clear that a great many land reform projects have failed to improve the incomes and livelihoods of beneficiaries, in part because of inadequate or poorly designed policies and support programmes, in part due to poor linkages between different departments and levels of government. In response, some analysts argue that redistribution or restitution of land rights needs to be complemented by imaginative agrarian reform interventions, which support the emergence of productive, market-oriented small-scale farmers, both in land reform contexts and in the former reserves (Aliber and Hall 2010). This will require a stronger and more effective link between land and agricultural policies. Similar thinking informs the National Growth Path framework, which suggests that government will aim to create 300 000 ‘smallholder opportunities’ by 2020, partly through the restructuring of land reform.
A broad consensus is emerging across South African society that supporting smallholder farmers through land reform is a critically important issue, but few detailed proposals for how to actually achieve this in practice are on the table. Public dialogue on these issues is fragmented or ill-informed. Policy makers are not always aware of rigorous research evidence that can assist in the design of appropriate policies and programmes. Researchers use competing analytical frameworks and disagree on the policy implications of their findings. The efforts of civil society and private sector organisations are often unco-ordinated and poorly linked to government programmes. All these stakeholders have important things to say, but there are few opportunities at present for them to share their perspectives, consider the available evidence, and discuss what it all means for policy and practice.
This small and focused workshop will bring together leading researchers, policy makers and a range of other stakeholders to debate these questions in depth and suggest lessons for the way forward.
Registration now closed!
Labour in Large Scale Agriculture in Africa and Southeast Asia