South Africas agrarian question

Based on an in-depth analysis of several contrasting agricultural regions, this book aims to assess South Africas on-going agrarian reform and the countrys agrarian dynamics. The conclusion is without doubt: Twenty years after the first democratic elections, the countrys land pattern remains almost unchanged, and primary agriculture and its broader value-chains are more concentrated than ever. Without fundamentally questioning the highly specialised, fossil energy and synthetic input dependent, oligopolistic entrepreneurial agricultural production model, which is presently structuring the sector and is guiding the reforms, a more equitable redistribution of resources and value-addition will by no means be possible. This book examines and contributes to the structural questions that underpin the current stagnation of South Africas agrarian reform. Presenting fresh approaches in analysing agrarian issues and tools to assess farming systems and agricultural development, this incisive study will be an important resource to policy makers, academics and those with an interest in agrarian reform.