Agricultural land headache
CLEAR CRITERIA: WHO WILL BE BENEFICIARIES
It needs to be made clear who the beneficiaries will be.
Experiences in other parts of the world clearly highlight the many pitfalls of what is an extensive process.
Some of the successful land reform programmes in the world took place in countries where the beneficiaries were those who occupied the land at the time of the reform. This may be true for the provision of secure tenure to occupiers living under legally insecure tenure arrangements in communal areas, but the context is quite different for the redistribution and restitution programmes in South Africa.
The Constitution does not prescribe which citizens need to be prioritised as this detail was left to the policymakers.
However, it is generally accepted that equitable access should enable previously disadvantaged citizens to access land on an equal footing.
The main aim of the land redistribution programme is to redress the impact of past wrongs. For this reason, the programme would generally support aspirant black farmers. However, a programme of this nature will not make an agricultural producer out of every participant.
Experiences in Mexico, Zimbabwe and now also in South Africa demonstrate that in addition to the opportunity for corruption, it takes a long time to carry out effective administrative functions related to land reform.
During the design phase of the land reform programme back in the mid-1990s, Johan van Rooyen and Bongiwe Njobe documented the criteria formulated for beneficiary selection, but this was never fully applied nor captured in legislation.
Hence, we have decided to revisit their original work in our attempt to start a conversation about the selection of beneficiaries for land redistribution.
Moreover, Njobe and Van Rooyen highlighted specific criteria that have been shown through international experience to improve “agricultural success”:
Net financial worth. This is a useful criterion to target the poor but also helps to identify those beneficiaries who exhibit strong repayment ability as well as willingness to increase the size of the holding and other assets.
Previous farming experience. Many studies have found that successful farming experience and acquired skills are strongly predictive of good performance.
The main argument is that previous farming experience could ensure a productive and sustainable use of land.
These aspects include: formal or informal training in farming practices; the previous existence of a viable black agricultural community; the existence of (indigenous) knowledge of viable farming; those who have lived and or worked on white-owned farms have, through practice, acquired knowledge of farming.
Entrepreneurial skills. Modern farming is a business like any other business but with far greater (external) risks.
Entrepreneurial and business skills are therefore critical for the financial success of the commercial farming enterprise.
These skills include: the cultivation of cash crops and marketing of the crops/ livestock; the inclination to grow more cash crops; a desire to increase landholding; a more positive orientation towards training; employment of other people; openness to the advice of fellow farmers, co-operatives and extension officers.
Wandile Sihlobo is head of agribusiness research at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and Professor Johann Kirsten is Director of the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) at Stellenbosch University.