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Call for applications: Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies

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PLAAS
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NELGA Masterclass: Mining, Extractivism, and Land Rights in Africa

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PLAAS
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Public talk: Chinese ‘colonialism’, capital accumulation, and the Belt and Road Initiative

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Deshnee Subramany
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Watch: Living Landscapes in Action – a call for conservation to integrate social, spatial justice

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Africa’s land professionals learn from the sector’s best at sixth Nelga pan-African short course FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Africa’s land professionals learn from the sector’s best at sixth Nelga pan-African short course

“Land belongs to three groups of people: those who have died , those who are living today , and those who are not yet born .” - Professor Mamadou Goïta “Soil is spiritual, and land is not only about economics. When understanding land through the soil, it balances its economic and ecological value.” - Nelga short course participant Shumirai Guzha,…
PLAAS
August 12, 2024
Public lecture: The great reshuffling – mobility, borders, and care at +2 degrees News & Events

Public lecture: The great reshuffling – mobility, borders, and care at +2 degrees

The world should brace for a demographic and cartographic reshuffling. The current trajectory of climate change and fossil fuels may render much of the Global South uninhabitable. Heat waves, combined with political collapse and economic inequality, are already driving people across the sea and desert. Migrants are also crossing borders at the cost of their lives. What would it take…
PLAAS
June 24, 2024
Call for applications: Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Call for applications: Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa

Five-day university accredited online short course: 22 - 26 July 2024 Call for applications Why this course? Across Africa, the majority of both rural and urban residents have insecure tenure rights, either in law or in practice. They face the legacy of land dispossession, colonial legal codes, contested customary tenure systems, and growing pressure on land in the face of…
PLAAS
June 6, 2024
farm land south africa
Digital Technology in Kenyan Agriculture: A Scoping Report FeaturedFeatured PublicationNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Digital Technology in Kenyan Agriculture: A Scoping Report

Recent developments in Kenya’s agriculture have seen a steady emergence of experimentation with a wide range of digital solutions targeting smallholder farmers. The inspirations driving these innovations and application of technology in the sector draw from the need to make agriculture efficient and cost effective and increase profits and food production, especially within the context of climatic change. Digital agriculture…
PLAAS
May 27, 2024
Digital tech in African agriculture workshop report: livelihoods, climate change and food system transformation FeaturedFeatured PublicationNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Digital tech in African agriculture workshop report: livelihoods, climate change and food system transformation

Workshop report: 25-26 September 2023 The digital revolution in global agriculture has begun and this includes digital technology in African agriculture. We now see the use of a variety of digital tools on the continent, such as drones, precision farming machinery, digital decision-making support tools, digital labour management tools or online food and agricultural input marketplaces. Even though the digital…
PLAAS
May 27, 2024
Digital Tech in African Agriculture: The Case of German Actors FeaturedFeatured PublicationNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Digital Tech in African Agriculture: The Case of German Actors

WORKING PAPER #68 27-05-2024 Author: Luxen, V This study examines German actors involved in the digitalisation of agriculture in Africa. The main actors identified were Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers, Agricultural Input Companies, Software and Big Data Companies, and Donors. These actors are characterised by extensive interactions, with commercial activities and development cooperation identified as central motives. The size of the actors…
PLAAS
May 27, 2024
Digital Technology in Zambian Agriculture: A Scoping Report FeaturedFeatured PublicationNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Digital Technology in Zambian Agriculture: A Scoping Report

WORKING PAPER #66 27-05-2024 Author: Nalwimba, N Digital technologies in agriculture have been identified as a game changer in agrifood systems (IFPRI, 2020).Policy makers, researchers and corporate interests make claims about how digital technologies in agriculture are significant in making farming more productive, efficient and sustainable. In Zambia, agriculture remains a critical sector to achieve the country’s development goals. FAO…
PLAAS
May 27, 2024
NELGA, PLAAS, and beyond: a partnership lesson in protecting communities FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

NELGA, PLAAS, and beyond: a partnership lesson in protecting communities

Malany Meyer, a community-based activist who assisted PLAAS with research in her area, is from one of Cape Town’s largest and most impoverished townships, Lavender Hill. In 2021, Malany was evicted from her home by police and Red Ants, who broke down her and others’ structures while they were inside their homes. After the combative confrontation with eviction teams, Malany’s…
PLAAS
May 13, 2024
PLAAS Director Professor Andries du Toit moves to UWC’s School of Government FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS Director Professor Andries du Toit moves to UWC’s School of Government

The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) bids farewell to its outgoing director, Professor Andries du Toit. Professor du Toit will continue his work at the University of the Western Cape at the School of Government, where he will contribute to teaching, research, and community engagement, specifically in the areas of poverty, citizenship, and democracy. Professor du Toit…
PLAAS
April 30, 2024
PLAAS mourns the passing of activist icon and MPhil candidate, Constance Mogale (1971-2023) BlogFeaturedFeatured BlogNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS mourns the passing of activist icon and MPhil candidate, Constance Mogale (1971-2023)

Tribute from her supervisor and friend, Professor Ruth Hall I first met Constance Galeo Mogale sometime in 2002, upstairs in the offices of the Landless Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA) in Braamfontein. Peter Jacobs (now at HSRC) and I had asked her for an interview, for a series of reports we were writing evaluating land reform. She was assured and…
jvandieman@plaas.org.za
January 25, 2024