WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-01-22 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 1/22/2004 5:11:30 AM
South Africa: Lack of Support for Land Reform Beneficiaries
The lack of sufficient post-transfer support for beneficiaries of land redistribution in South Africa could derail the country’s land reform programme, say researchers.
Two recent studies have pointed to a gap between land redistribution and agrarian development, as the country attempts to address the land ownership imbalances of apartheid.
The first report, a scoping study of freehold and farming communities in South Africa, was conducted on behalf of the British Department of International Development (DFID) Southern Africa. The second was conducted by the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), based at the University of the Western Cape. Both studies were concluded in September 2003.
PLAAS researcher Ruth Hall told IRIN that post-transfer support “is such a central issue that it could either make or break land reform in South Africa”.
The DFID-funded study noted that “beneficiaries identified a critical need for agricultural training, finance and funding for production, farming equipment and greater access to project-related information”. This report was compiled by McIntosh Xaba and Associates.
It found that “despite the fact that most current land reform beneficiaries – and black rural households in general – are involved in grazing and dry-land cropping, the key focus of most rural development NGOs and state agencies is on craft production, organic farming and the marketing of high-value crops.”
Both the government and NGOs needed to reorient themselves around appropriate support for sustainable livelihoods among land reform beneficiaries.
Hall said that while “agricultural extension services and access to markets have existed for decades for the white commercial farming sector, those support systems are now not available for [mostly small-scale] black farmers”.
The PLAAS report, compiled by researcher Peter Jacobs, found that “as the process of land delivery moves ahead, challenges facing newly settled farmers are beginning to emerge more clearly”.
These challenges were unearthed by three quality-of-life surveys conducted by the Department of Land Affairs.
“They indicated a lack of post-transfer support was one of the biggest stumbling blocks in assisting small farmers to make productive use of the land. In the absence of post-transfer support, a lot of people abandoned the land and went back to the cities,” Jacobs told IRIN.
In August 2001 the state initiated the Land Redistribution and Agricultural Development Programme, in a bid to remedy these problems. “But did it address these problems? The short answer is, no it did not,” said Jacobs. “There’s no specific funding or budget for agricultural extension services for land reform projects.”
He explained that agricultural extension services would offer advice to small farmers on how to “improve farming techniques, and of being aware of weather conditions and the type of crops to farm, as well as vaccines for livestock etc”.
Small farmers currently had to obtain these services from the private sector, which was generally geared towards large-scale commercial farming, and therefore did not have the necessary knowledge and experience to assist small-scale farmers – many of whom could also not afford such services.
CONCERN OVER LACK OF SUPPORT
“The concern has been raised that the land reform programme has focussed primarily on the transfer of land,” said Hall, “there’s concern that the transfer of land sometimes tends to be the end of a process, rather than start of a longer-term process.” Official reviews had identified this as “a key gap that inherently limits the potential for land reform in promoting viable livelihoods and rural development”.
The PLAAS report noted that “agrarian restructuring is not sustainable if post-settlement support to land reform beneficiaries is lacking. At the policy level there has been virtually no progress, beyond acknowledging the need for such support”.
Ad hoc arrangements were currently filling this space with limited success, without any institution assuming responsibility for integrating these efforts.
Hall explained that “even though [land reform and rural development] fall under one ministry, there are two separate departments – one dealing with land reform, and one with the agrarian development component”. This meant there was a “disjuncture between land reform and post-transfer support … a lack of alignment between people getting land, and then getting support to develop the land”.
The PLAAS report added that “resources are not effectively mobilised to address the multiple needs of land reform beneficiaries”.
“A comprehensive post-transfer support policy, based on a planned and integrated approach, is required to ensure that land and agrarian reform can contribute to sustainable rural livelihoods,” the report concluded.
The DFID-funded study can be found at: http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000644/P6…
The PLAAS report can be found at: http://www.uwc.ac.za/plaas/br>
Source: AllAfrica.com
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200401210506.htm…br>