Incentive Distortions in Developing Agriculture in South Africa and Implications for Tenure Reform

  • W. Lieb Nieuwoudt
  • Graham Moor
  • Rupert Baber
Part of the International Economic Association Series book series (IEA)

Abstract

The political transformation in South Africa is a political marvel. One reason why this was accomplished is that potential conflict areas were diffused by pre-emptive steps taken before democratic elections. In terms of land distribution, mechanisms were set in place allowing for land transfers from state and predominantly white-owned commercial farms to small-scale black farmers. These steps are required to alleviate the extreme skewedness of land access, reflected by the fact that the white minority owns about 87 per cent of South Africa’s agricultural land. The new government has proposed various resettlement models to achieve land transfers to previously disenfranchised black farmers, ranging from private ownership to group resettlement (LAPC, 1993).

Keywords

Arable Land Land Tenure Grazing Land Communal Area Tenure System 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Atwood, D. A. (1990) ‘Land Registration in Africa: The Impact on Agricultural Production’, World Development, vol. 18, pp. 659–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Barrows, R. and M. Roth (1990) ‘Land Tenure and Investment in African Agriculture: Theory and Evidence’, Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 28, pp. 265–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Behnke, R. H. Jr (1984) ‘Fenced and Open-range Ranching: The Commercialization of Pastoral Land and Livestock in Africa’, in J. R. Simpson and P. Evangelou (eds), Livestock Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Constraints, Prospects, Policy (Boulder: Westview Press), pp. 261–84.Google Scholar
  4. Bembridge, T. J. (1986) ‘An Overview of Agricultural and Rural Development Problems in Less Developed Areas of Southern Africa’, Development Southern Africa, 3(1), pp. 20–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Buchanan, J. M. (1986) Liberty, Market and State: Political Economy in the 1980s (Brighton: Wheatsheaf).Google Scholar
  6. Ciriacy-Wantrup, S. V. and R. C. Bishop (1975) ‘Common Property as a Concept in Natural Resources Policy’, Natural Resources Journal, vol. 15, pp. 713–27.Google Scholar
  7. Cross, C. R. (1990a) ‘Land Tenure in Black Rural Areas: Social and Political Underpinnings’, unpublished paper, Department of Development Administration and Politics, University of South Africa.Google Scholar
  8. Cross, C. R. (1990b) ‘Mythology and Mystery Tours in Land Reform: Getting Some Focus on the South African Debate’, Development Southern Africa, vol. 7, pp. 535–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Dasgupta, P. (1982) The Control of Resources (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).Google Scholar
  10. Feder, G. and T. Onchan (1987) ‘Land Ownership Security and Farm Investment in Thailand’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 69, pp. 311–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Hitchcock, R. K. (1980) ‘Tradition, Social Justice and Land Reform in Central Botswana’, Journal of African Law, vol. 24(1), pp. 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Huntley, B. R. Siegfried and C. Sunter (1989) South African Environments into the 21st Century (Cape Town: Human & Rousseau).Google Scholar
  13. Jordan, B. A. (1983) ‘Subsistence Farmers or Non-Farmers?’, unpublished BSc. (Agric.) thesis, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Google Scholar
  14. LAPC (1993) ‘Options for Land Reform and Rural Restructuring in South Africa’, revised version of the LAPC paper presented at the Land Redistributions Options Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 1993.Google Scholar
  15. Lawry, S. W., J. C. Riddell and J. W. Bennett (1984) ‘Land Tenure Policy in African Livestock Development’, in J. R. Simpson and P. Evangelou (eds), Livestock Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Constraints, Prospects, Policy (Boulder: Westview Press), pp. 245–59.Google Scholar
  16. Lenta, G. (1982) ‘Land, Labour and Capital in KwaZulu: Some Failures of Coincidence’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 1(2), pp. 307–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Low, A. (1986) Agricultural Development in Southern Africa: Farm-Household Economics and the Food Crisis (Cape Town: David Philip).Google Scholar
  18. Lyne, M. C. (1989) ‘Distortion of Incentives for Farm Households in KwaZulu’, unpublished PhD thesis in Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Google Scholar
  19. Lyne, M. C. and M. Roth (1994) ‘Land Rental Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa: Efficiency, Equity and Institutional Change’, unpublished paper, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
  20. McKenzie, C. C. and G. K. Coetzee (1988) ‘Estimation of Demand for Farmer Support Services’, in Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Agricultural Economics Association of Southern Africa, Stellenbosch, South Africa (26–27 September).Google Scholar
  21. McKenzie, C. C., D. Weinerand and N. Vink (1989) ‘Land Use, Agricultural Productivity and Farming Systems in Southern Africa’, unpublished report, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
  22. Moor, G. M. and W. L. Nieuwoudt (1995) ‘The Interaction between Land Tenure Security and Agricultural Productivity in Zimbabwe’, Agrekon, vol. 34(4), pp. 288–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Nieuwoudt, W. L. (1990) ‘Efficiency of Land Use’, paper presented at the AEASE Conference, Durban (16–18 September).Google Scholar
  24. Olson, M. (1971) The Logic of Collective Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
  25. Place, F. and P. Hazell (1993) ‘Productivity Effects of Indigenous Land Tenure Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 57(1), pp. 10–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Place, F., M. Roth and P. Hazell (1994) ‘Land Tenure Security and Agricultural Performance in Africa: Overview of Research Methodology’ in Searching for Land Tenure Security in Africa, ed. J. W. Bruce and S. E. Migot-Adholla (Iowa: Kendall Hunt).Google Scholar
  27. Runge, C. F. (1981) ‘Common Property Externalities: Isolation, Assurance, and Resource Depletion in a Traditional Grazing Context’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 63, pp. 595–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Runge, C. F. (1984) ‘Strategic Interdependence Models of Property Rights’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 66, pp. 807–813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Stewart, D. A. (1990) (Managing Director, LIMA Rural Development Foundation, Umzumbe), personal communication.Google Scholar
  30. Thomson, D. N. and M. C. Lyne (1995) ‘Is Tenure Secure in Communal Areas? Some Empirical Evidence from KwaZulu-Natal’, Agrekon, vol. 34(4), pp. 178–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© International Economic Association 1998

Authors and Affiliations

  • W. Lieb Nieuwoudt
    • 1
  • Graham Moor
    • 1
  • Rupert Baber
    • 1
  1. 1.University of NatalSouth Africa

Personalised recommendations