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Another Countryside

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Lost seasons for small-scale fishers during Covid-19

By Maia Nangle The geelstert (yellowtail) is a favourite, much consumed fish in South African households, as well as an important source of annual income for small-scale fishing families and communities across the country. Fisherfolk nationwide, including from communities in Gansbaai and Ysterfontein in the Western Cape, travel to Struisbaai near the tip of the Cape Peninsula to harvest this…
PLAAS
May 28, 2021
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How Covid-19 regulations affected commercially oriented smallholder farmers in uMgungundlovu in South Africa

By Nkanyiso Gumede The South African government’s bias towards the corporate food system during hard lockdown left many South Africans vulnerable to hunger and food insecurity, and resulted in lost income. Most South Africans rely on supermarkets for food. Most of the food in the supermarkets is sourced from large-scale commercial farmers. Meanwhile, the country’s many smallholder farmers have limited…
PLAAS
May 17, 2021
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Why Zimbabwe needs an urgent moratorium on evictions of people living on customary land

By Phillan Zamchiya Dear Reader, I argue for a moratorium on the continued rise of large-scale acquisitions of customary land for private ‘investments’ in the marginalised rural areas of Zimbabwe to allow for a post-colonial democratic national resolution of the three issues articulated below. The latest such unchallenged trend is epitomised by the recently gazetted Statutory Instrument 50 of 2021.…
PLAAS
March 3, 2021
Agrarian ConversationsBlogFeatured BlogUncategorized

Cross-pollinating pastoral studies with wider agrarian questions

Linda Pappagallo How can we transcend fixed and imprinted imageries and open possibilities of innovation in agrarian struggles? Agrarian conversations typically center around land rights, food sovereignty and everyday interactions with neoliberal pressures. These conversations might make you think of farmers ploughing land and uniting for agrarian struggles, as is currently happening in India. We may be aware that the…
PLAAS
March 2, 2021
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The trials and the efforts of a farmer during COVID-19

By Marc Wegerif In January 2020, Thulani* looked like a very successful and entrepreneurial black farmer with a quality product and a niche high-value market. He was growing micro-greens, herbs, and edible flowers for upmarket restaurants, hotels, and caterers around Johannesburg and Pretoria. The produce gets picked in the morning and distributed in refrigerated delivery vans to be eaten fresh…
PLAAS
February 19, 2021
BlogFeatured BlogUncategorizedWomen’s Land Tenure Security

Land tenure insecurity in Zimbabwe exposes rural communities to intimidation and arbitrary evictions

By Owen Dhliwayo and Refiloe Joala Munyokowere villagers versus the State In a recent court ruling, presided over by Justice Mwayera at the Mutare High Court on 24 July 2020, an interdict was granted to prevent the eviction of 750 households from their homes and agricultural land in Munyokowere village, Chipinge District in Manicaland Province, southeastern Zimbabwe. The interdict also…
PLAAS
November 6, 2020