DEFINICION DE LA TERAPIA

Role of small scale farming in rural livelihoods of former labour tenants

Empirical data suggests that former labour tenants have benefited from engaging in small- scale agriculture. Households gain access to extra sources of food to meet a range of nutritional requirements, and income from either selling surplus crops or from cash cropping. Similarly cash income is generated from the sale of livestock, particularly cattle, goats and poultry. Other food items such as starch, fats and oils are bought using this income, together with meeting other household expenses such as education, transport and household assets. I found that households use a combination of income sources, including farming, to invest in more productive assets and other livelihood options, thus potentially fostering „accumulation from below‟ (Cousins 2013).

Overall the contribution made from farming is significant despite the fact that there was under-farming in both areas, and it contributes a relatively small share of total household income sources. Small-scale agriculture amongst labour tenant communities has been shown to have a high impact on rural livelihoods, thus providing an efficient mechanism to fighting

133 rural poverty. Hence more institutional support, further research, and development of appropriate technologies is imperative for improving the lives of farming households and potential farmers.

Irrigated land and land redistribution

Having access to irrigable land was the main distinguishing feature of the farming systems at Nkaseni. This gave farmers a comparative advantage over farmers at Ncunjane, who practiced dryland agriculture. As a result, farming systems were primarily based on cash cropping at Nkaseni whilst farming systems at Ncunjane were subsistence-oriented with only surplus produce being sold. Therefore farmers at Nkaseni were found to have a higher return on their investment in farming than farmers at Ncunjane. Provision of conventional low-cost irrigation infrastructure could assist farmers in expanding the area of land under cultivation and the intensification of land use. These findings suggest that the redistribution of farms that are already under irrigation, or farmlands located along perennial rivers, can make a much more significant contributions to rural livelihoods compared to the redistribution of poor agricultural land with no access to irrigation.

Secure access to land is but one of the conditions necessary for small scale agriculture to materialise. In addition, access to communication and transportation infrastructure, different marketing avenues, and to extension support has huge significance for creating a thriving successful small-scale farming sector.

Multiple-function livestock systems

Livestock are an integral component of mixed farming systems across much of Africa. They serve the rural household as a source of food, draught-power, and manure, and also serve numerous cultural functions. Livestock ownership patterns vary amongst households, with many starting to invest in cattle and goats after the transfer of land via land reform, and a few members of the rural elite having acquired larger herds and flocks. Establishing and maintaining large herds and flocks ensures continued household reproduction. This implies that increased accessibility to veterinary services is essential. Similarly, efforts to develop appropriate and resilient rangeland management systems, and efficient common property administration tools that will work for former labour tenant communities, are also needed.

Women’s role in small scale farming systems

The majority of the population sample, in both Ncunjane and Nkaseni, are women. I have established that women not only have domestic responsibilities, which require that they are often house-bound, but they also actively participate in the local economy. Time available for farming activities might be greatly reduced, but they make up for this by using family labour, especially during peak seasons for sowing, weeding and harvesting. Some women only tend smaller, more manageable garden plots for vegetable production, due to these time constraints. Women also extend their participation in farming by investing their own production inputs, and being the main labourers who attend to crop pests and diseases, watering, and selling of produce. This shows just how capable women are as farmers.

Gendered divisions of labour in these contexts do not generally allow women to invest in cattle, as cattle are seen as a „man‟s animal‟ in patriarchal settings. Nevertheless I found that female farmers used their farm income from cash cropping to subsidise investments in goat production. At a later stage, goats would be then traded for a cow, as a way to then enter into cattle production. This would enable women to access independent sources of income that can be used to meet their needs. Women are thus proving to be business-minded, with clear potential to actively participate in agro-food value chains. Women also kept traditional breeds of poultry, which were sold and or slaughtered to provide households with a supply of protein at regular intervals.

Women‟s inclusion as key role payers in agriculture in communal areas has the potential to improve household food security, meet a range of household needs, and help set women up as independent income-earning members within households. Rural households would gain supplementary sources of income by having more breadwinners, and be better positioned to fight household malnutrition. Customary practices and patriarchal arrangements might need to be re-configured to allow for women (single, married and widowed), to access high potential land and other productive assets, and thus promote fairness and equity within small- scale farming systems.

Labour tenant communities, as conservative and traditionalist as they are, might have to adapt their mindset, to allow women to participate in agricultural-oriented decision making and to sit on local governing bodies and farmers associations. Policy makers and government officials must recognise the socio-economic complexities within which farming in former labour tenant communities is embedded, and are urged to promote women in agriculture.

135 Commercialisation of small-scale agriculture

Instead of promoting commercialisation of small-scale agriculture, the nature of these hybrid farming systems should be understood, embraced, and incorporated into mainstream plans and budgets of national agricultural and rural development departments. Current farming systems cut across and incorporate elements of both traditional and conventional agricultural systems, and seem to be working for former labour tenants. These farming systems rely on the use of family labour, but all individuals engage in multiple livelihood options, and not just farming. Farming occurs on varying plot sizes that are currently under-utilised due to lack of working capital and labour. Hence with regard to the level of technology used, capital and labour intensity, and the fact that farming is not seen as a single livelihood or career, commercialisation of farming systems of former labour tenants tends to be misplaced. Therefore land use planners and extension officers should acknowledge the efficiency of these farming systems, given their multiple benefits.

Commercialisation of individual farmers and not farming systems in their entirety might be a possibility, considering that farming households are socially differentiated, in terms of access to the means of production and participation in diverse rural livelihoods. Some farmers are better endowed with productive assets, as a result of participating in off farm employment, than others. This enables them to invest in agriculture and bear the risks of producing certain commodities. Even were such farmers to be targeted, the implications of commercialisation for use of common property resources would need to be addressed. Similarly, the prospects of local job creation and general improvement of rural livelihoods using commercialisation of small scale agriculture as a vehicle have to be unpacked. Policymakers must place emphasis on the provision of increased agricultural support services, over extended periods of time, whilst allowing farmers to experiment through trial and error, much like the processes that developed commercial farmers under the apartheid government.