Southern African Agriculture and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Analysis examines the food security threats facing eight of the countries that make up southern Africa — Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe — and explores how climate change will increase the efforts needed to achieve sustainable food security...

The agriculture sector continues to be viewed as a vehicle through which economic growth and development can be achieved; particularly for developing economies. This view is incorporated in South Africa’s rural development framework in the National Development Plan, which indicated that this sector will be the main driver in developing...

This book documents a unique series of 19 case studies where agricultural biotechnologies were used to serve the needs of smallholders in developing countries. They cover different regions, production systems, species and underlying socio-economic conditions in the crop (seven case studies), livestock (seven) and aquaculture/fisheries (five) sectors. Most of the...

Access to agricultural information is vital for improving food security at the village level. This study accessed the agricultural information needs of women farmers in Nkonkobe Municipality of the Amathole District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Data was obtained from 118 households. The women farmers were identified from four villages...

This paper addresses the challenges facing the home garden farmers in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Sixty households farmer were selected through systematic sampling from Nkokonbe municipality which were purposively selected. The small scale farmers were interviewed with the help of an interview schedule containing open and closed ended...

Available evidence suggests that sub-saharan Africa as a group has suffered serious setbacks in recent years, culminating in the stagnation of farm production and productivity amidst sustained and sometime escalating poverty rates. At the same time, increases in human population levels have resulted in rising demand for food as well...

In examining agricultural vulnerability to climate change in South Africa, we see that an important factor is the enormous existing socioeconomic disparity in access to resources, poverty levels, and capacities to adapt. Recent research results suggest that the South African farming sector is characterized by medium-level exposure risk, coupled with...

In this issue of GREAT insights we have asked the ‘custodians’ of the UN Year of Family Farming and the AU Year of Food Security, the Director General of the Food Agriculture Organization and the AU Commissioner for Agriculture, what outcomes they expect from these international processes, particularly in terms of the...

Over the last fifty years food production per person in Africa has grown disappointingly slowly at little more than 10%. The population of Africa is growing rapidly at an average annual rate of 2.5% and is expected to almost double by 2050 to close to two billion people. Chronic hunger...

Despite the increasing attention given to organic supply chains over the past decade, there are still significant market opportunities to pursue. The demand for organic products in developing countries continues to grow and price premiums for organic certified products are available, albeit not comparable with those of a decade or...

This report provides 50 interviews from fisheries that are moving towards sustainability. It takes the approach of speaking to those who are directly involved in fishing, earn their livelihoods on a daily basis from fishing and often work at the sharp end in dangerous conditions. These are the people, together...

During the coming decades, global change will impact food and water security in significant but highly uncertain ways. There are strong indications that developing countries will bear the brunt of the consequences, particularly from climate change. In Sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture—the mainstay of rural livelihoods—is particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts...

The present edition highlights the significance of the forestry sector to the overall economy and its importance overall in the region’s land use, demonstrating its potential to make a difference in improving (or worsening) an economy’s green credentials. It is an important message about forestry and greenness.

Agriculture provides an indispensable part of the livelihoods of the poorest households in southern Africa. The sector is a primary source of income for the rural population and contributes to foreign exchange earnings for southern African economies. Over 70 percent of the arable land is under smallholder agriculture in Sub...

This is Volume 2 of the study ‘Strategies to Support South African Smallholders as a Contribution to Government’s Second Economy Strategy.’ It contains the accounts of the 16 case studies that comprised the main ‘data’ for the analysis presented in Volume 1. However, beyond their function of supporting the analytical...

The status and characteristics of the 302 smallholder irrigation schemes found in South Africa are discussed and knowledge on South African smallholder irrigation schemes generated by the Water Research Commission (WRC) over a period of nearly 20 years is reviewed. Themes covered include planning, design and technology; plot-holders and their...

The year 2011 has been proclaimed the International Year of Forests (in brief “Forests 2011”) and it is being celebrated under the theme “Forests for People”. This is truly a remarkable theme. One cannot come close to covering all of it in a single edition of Nature & Faune as...

As population density increases and available natural resources diminish, tensions and competition increase among stakeholders for access to land for farming and animal husbandry as well as access to forest, fishery and wildlife resources. The scramble for resources involves communities, economic interest groups, governments and the private sector as they...

Small‐scale
 agriculture
 is
 one
 of
 the
 few
 tools
 available
 to
 support
 improved
rural
 livelihoods
on
a
 significant
 scale
in
South
Africa.
Access
 to
output
markets
is
a
key
 obstacle
 for
 small
 farmers
 in
 generating
 higher
 incomes.
 Thus,
the
 rise
 of
modern
 markets
 (supermarkets
 in
 particular)
 is
 generally
 viewed
 as
 positive
 for
 the
 rural
 poor,
 although
 most
 commentators
 accede
 that
 there
 are
 challenges
 to
 be
 overcome
 in
 obtaining
 access
 to
...

This paper argue that a class-analytic perspective centred on the key concepts of ‘petty commodity production’ and ‘accumulation from below’ is essential for understanding the differentiated character and diverse trajectories of small-scale agriculture within capitalism. The paper explores the policy implications of such a class-analytic approach, and proposes that land...