South Africa’s land reform coverage stays extremely contested. But, in our view, quite a lot of persistent myths about farmland statistics and the construction of economic agriculture skew debates.
This makes it troublesome to succeed in some frequent understanding about the realities of land and agriculture in the nation.
In 1994 when South Africa turned a democracy, white farmers owned 77.58 million hectares of farmland out of the overall surface area of 122 million hectares. The new authorities set a goal of redistributing 30% of this within five years. This goal date has been moved a number of instances and is now 2030.
According to standard perception between 8% and 10% has been redistributed thus far. But as we present beneath that is incorrect because it omits quite a lot of key statistics.
Only 17%-20% of the 77,58 million ha is appropriate for discipline crop, irrigation and horticultural manufacturing. More than 55% of farmland is simply best for in depth grazing (land that’s poor and dry however animals can roam extensively, the Karoo being an instance), and one other 20% for intensive pastures and animal manufacturing (land, the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands being an instance, that receives good rains and has good pastures for grazing).
This reveals that the potential of farmland getting used to create full-time sustainable livelihoods is restricted. This suggests {that a} cautious and measured strategy must be adopted in redistribution efforts.
These realities are the idea for our arguments in opposition to 5 normal myths about agriculture and land in South Africa.
That’s to not say that there isn’t an amazing deal nonetheless to be completed. But failure to recognise the positive aspects which have been achieved signifies that insurance policies can’t be developed based mostly on what’s been achieved thus far.
Myth 1: 40 000 white farmers personal 80% of all South Africa’s land
First, let’s flip to the quantity that’s quoted about white farmers.
The variety of 40 122 business farmers is extensively quoted as the overall variety of farmers incomes a business revenue from farming. The quantity comes from the 2017 census of commercial agriculture.
But the quantity is flawed.
Firstly, the census solely considers farmers who’re registered for VAT (for which the edge is a turnover of R1 million a 12 months (about US$59 000 at present).
Adding in two different teams – the variety of households involved in commercial farming as their primary supply of revenue and people who apply farming as a secondary supply of revenue – the overall variety of households involves 242 221.
Read: Land reform in South Africa: what the actual debate ought to be about
It’s troublesome to estimate the “race” of economic farmers. But, utilizing totally different knowledge sources together with the 2011 population census, the 2017 agricultural census and the 2016 community survey we estimated that almost all business farm enterprises are black owned. And that solely 18% of those households are white.
Now to the 80% determine.
In 1994 white farmers owned 77.58 million ha of freehold land. We estimate that white farmers now (*5*). This follows the implementation of redistribution and restitution programmes and different transfers of land to the state and black farmers. It nonetheless represents 78% of freehold farmland however covers solely 50% of the overall floor space of South Africa.
Fact: White business farmers (round 44, 000 farming items) personal 61 million ha – 78% of the farmland that comes with non-public title deeds or 50% of all land in South Africa.
Myth 2: Commercial agriculture is characterised by large-scale white farmers
This fantasy outcomes from a misinterpretation of the idea of “commercial” and “scale”.
Commercial agricultural manufacturing signifies manufacturing past subsistence wants, with some (or a significant share) of the overall manufacturing offered to the market. This often additionally includes the acquisition of manufacturing inputs similar to seeds and fertiliser.
But business manufacturing occurs at varied ranges or “scales of production”.
The scale of farming just isn’t decided by land measurement. Instead it refers back to the gross farm income (or turnover) of the farming enterprise.
Land measurement just isn’t a very good indication of the size of the farming operation.
For instance, a small irrigation farm of 10 ha can ship tens of millions in turnover whereas a ten 000ha in depth grazing farm is unlikely to exceed R1 million in turnover each year.
If we unpack the census of economic agriculture, business farming in South Africa consists largely of small-scale family-based operations.
Almost 90% of all VAT-registered commercial farming businesses could be labeled as micro – or small-scale enterprises (turnover beneath R13.5 million). While that is true, it’s additionally a proven fact that there are simply over 2600 massive farms with turnover on common above R22.5 million each year. These farms are liable for 67% of all farm revenue and make use of greater than half the agricultural labour power.
Read: Expropriation with out compensation haunts agriculture
If we take account of the farms that aren’t registered for VAT it’s evident that 98% of all farming operations in South Africa are small-scale operations.
But, a mistaken leap is made to say that each one white business farmers are “large-scale” operations, and all black farmers are “small-scale”. In the method, most writers on South African agriculture confuse the “scale of the operation” with the “race” of the operator.
Fact: Most white business farmers in South Africa are small-scale and family-based operations. Only a small minority (2 600) are large-scale operations. Most of those are owned by white farmers.
Myth 3: Commercial farmers are hoarding land and never promoting any farms
It is commonly argued that white business farmers are holding on to their land and never providing it on the market to potential consumers.
Deeds office records present insights into the exercise in the farmland market. Between 2013 and 2021, the annual variety of farm transactions recorded different between 2 000 and 4 000.
In 2021 2585 farms have been offered and registered to new homeowners. Most (58%) of those have been farms smaller than 300 hectares.
Between 2003 and August 2022, the state acquired 2.8 million ha which brings the overall space of farmland acquired by the state since 1994 to three.12 million ha (or 4% of freehold farmland). This means that the state can be energetic in the market.
Fact: The farmland market is energetic with round 2% of whole farmland with non-public title deeds traded yearly.
Myth 4: All black farmers with non-public title deeds acquired their land via the land reform programme
Deeds information present that since 1994 black South Africans have privately acquired a complete of 1.78 million ha of farmland through normal self-financed market transactions.
Over the identical interval the federal government redistribution programme has assisted beneficiaries to amass a complete of seven.2 million ha of farmland. Thus, for each 4 hectares transferred by the State to black South Africans, non-public transactions contributed one other one hectare to the method.
Fact: Black farmers have acquired virtually 2 million ha of farmland (2.3% of whole freehold farmland) on their very own with none help from the state sponsored land redistribution programme.
Myth 5: South Africa has solely redistributed 8% of farmland to black folks
The debate on the expropriation of land is essentially pushed by the parable that white farmers are hoarding land and are inflating costs, and subsequently, it’s not possible to take away the racially skewed land possession patterns in South Africa.
These arguments usually ignore the statistics on the land market and the truth that black South Africans have been buying farmland on their very own. These arguments additionally conveniently ignore different elements, similar to bureaucratic inefficiencies, patronage and corruption – which have slowed down land reform.
In addition, the inaccurate presentation of the progress with the land reform course of can be maliciously used to inflate the argument for expropriation.
If South Africans are true to themselves and accurately report the statistics, then they are going to be a lot nearer to the 30% goal. We estimate, utilizing varied official datasets, that as much as August 2022, the land statistics have been as follows:
Based on these numbers extracted from official sources it’s evident that South Africa has made far more progress than what’s been punted round. It is, subsequently, disingenuous of analysts and commentators to not take account of the actual progress made right here.
Fact: Taking account of all of the pillars of the land reform programme, it’s estimated that 24% of all farmland has been redistributed or land rights have been restored. This is near the 30% goal, which could possibly be reached by 2030.
* Johann Kirsten is Director of the Bureau for Economic Research at Stellenbosch University, and Wandile Sihlobo is a Senior Fellow in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
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