Rural employment is a key policy issue in South Africa, yet the National Development Plan (NDP) of 2012 suggests that one million jobs can be created in agricultural production, processing and related activities. The plan suggests that more jobs can be created by increased investment in water...
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Smallholder farming and irrigation
by Amelia Genis in 2018
by Bulisani Lloyd Ncube in 2018
This article focuses on the socio-economic differentiation of smallholder farmers in New Forest Irrigation Scheme. Smallholder irrigation schemes are seen as a way of alleviating poverty and contributing to economic growth. Although smallholders are lumped together as a homogenous group, the...
by Ruth Hall in 2018
What is the transformative potential that emerges from these struggles around land?
Just a month ago, Jacob Zuma was president of South Africa. An authoritarian patriarch implicated in large-scale corruption, he had for years effectively rallied political support by invoking populist...
by Ian Scoones, Saturnino Borras, Lyda Fernanda Forero, Ruth Hall, Marc Eldelman, Wendy Wolford, Benjamin White in 2018
Religion, gender dynamics, place and cultural identity – all inform rising authoritarian populism in rural areas, alongside class interests and inequalities. Mobilising alternatives to capture by regressive political forces is not straightforward.
Authoritarian populism...
by Barbara van Koppen, Barbara Nompumelelo Tapela, Everisto Mapedza in 2018
In the global debates on the modes of farming, including irrigated farming, that are viable for the majority of rural people, three models prevail: (i) smallholder family farming; (ii) farming led by agribusiness’ capital, technologies, and forward and backward linkages in an estate mode; and (...
