Intervention strategy for improving livelihoods of restituted farm beneficiaries in Waterberg District of Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Land reform programmes have been implemented to address challenges of inequality in land ownership and poverty in many countries worldwide. They provide the poor people with important livelihood opportunities, such as livestock rearing, crop production and game farming in many rural areas. The government of South Africa, through the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) allocated various farms through the restitution programme to deal with unemployment, poverty, unsustainable livelihoods, shortage of skills and inequality challenges. This study focused on the restituted farm beneficiaries in Waterberg District. This was informed by the fact that since these farms were restituted, the majority of the farm beneficiary’s livelihoods have not significantly changed. A transformative sequential mixed method design was applied in this study in order to enable beneficiaries define their own issues and seek solutions. This involved concurrent collection of both quantitative and qualitative data; a stratified random sampling method was used to select 474 respondents. Qualitative data was collected using Interview guides, photo-voice and focus group discussions mainly from key informants- traditional leaders and the Ward Councillors. Two focus group discussion were held with the key informants and an observation was also used to collect qualitative data from the farmers. The data were analysed using ATLAS. ti version 7.5.7 and Thematic Content Analysis. The quantitative data was collected using a survey questionnaire and the Geographical Information System (GIS) approach to provide trends of the farm production. Remote sensing analysis was used to determine farm production performance of these restituted farms while the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS version 25) was used for computing descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation. The data indicated that farm production has declined since occupation of farms by the farm beneficiaries from 1995 to 2015. The decline has negatively affected the livelihoods of farm beneficiaries since more than half (61.6 %) indicated difficulties in effective operation of the farm due to lack of markets. About 64% of the farm beneficiaries have not been trained in farming. From 1995 to 2015, most of the restituted farms have lacked markets for their produce due to poor production arising from lack of funds to manage the farms. This has impeded beneficiaries from receiving any benefits, in terms of income or employment. Generally, the study concluded that there were no changes in the socio-economic status of the farm beneficiaries in the Waterberg District because most of the farms are not being utilised. The study recommends that the sector Department and private organizations should work together in ways, such as assisting the farm beneficiaries with capacity building, developing marketing strategy for the farm produce, with funds and infrastructure to improve production. With respect to farm performance satisfaction, the majority (77.2 %) of the farm beneficiaries were not satisfied with the restituted farms. Their benefits in terms of human development, financial, social and physical capitals had not changed as the majority (83.3 %) said there are no improvements in terms of salaries or wages. They claim that their livelihoods have remained the same because the farms are not operational due to lack of basic farming skills and conflicts. Agricultural Extension Advisors, Councillors, Traditional leaders and officials from DRDLR confirmed that production levels have declined because the land was transferred to people with no basic training in farming; most (54 %) of the respondents confirmed that the beneficiaries, therefore utilise only a portion of the farms. It is imperative, thus, to ensure that production on the restituted farms is enhanced to improve the areas, such as social, financial, human and physical capital. A three-pronged intervention strategy was, therefore, developed to help restituted farm beneficiaries in Waterberg District to improve their livelihoods, emancipate themselves from poverty and ultimately contribute to the National Development Plan of South Africa. The developed strategy is anchored on three key factors: the need for thorough assessment by the government on the farm beneficiary’s level of commitment to the farm prior to farm allocation and funding, need to incorporate new experts in agricultural economics and agricultural engineers into the restituted farms personnel and the need to decentralize the services of mentors and agricultural extension advisors at District and local Municipalities.