Ensuring access to water for food production by emerging farmers in South Africa: what are the missing ingredients?
SOURCE: Water SA
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2020
TITLE AUTHOR(S): C.Chikozho, R.Managa, T.Dabata
KEYWORDS: ACCESS TO WATER, FARMERS, IRRIGATION, LAND REFORM, WATER MANAGEMENT
DEPARTMENT: African Institute of South Africa (AISA)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 11526
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/15441
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/15441
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2020
TITLE AUTHOR(S): C.Chikozho, R.Managa, T.Dabata
KEYWORDS: ACCESS TO WATER, FARMERS, IRRIGATION, LAND REFORM, WATER MANAGEMENT
DEPARTMENT: African Institute of South Africa (AISA)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 11526
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/15441
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/15441
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
One of the key components essential to the productivity of small-scale farmers who secured farms through the land redistribution programme in South Africa is access to reliable sources of water for irrigation. In this study, we deployed a stakeholder-oriented qualitative research methodology to understand the extent to which land reform farming schemes in Bela-Bela and Greater Sekhukhune have been able to access water and use it to enhance their agricultural production. We were keen to identify and articulate the water-related challenges and missing ingredients for successful agricultural production on the new farming schemes. The study found that access to water for irrigated agriculture is not guaranteed for most of the emerging farmers and they do not have the finance needed to invest in sustainable water supply systems for irrigation. As a result, the majority of the farmers in our study sample have not been able to realize any meaningful agricultural production, with their farming schemes being either underutilized or not functioning at all. Other key challenges include lack of finance, high costs of electricity, and lack of farming knowledge among the emerging farmers. The paper concludes that there is need for key actors in the development sector to provide more substantive post-land transfer support and ensure better access to water for the emerging farmers. This will enhance the farmers' chances of realizing more meaningful agricultural production while improving their livelihoods.-
Related Research Outputs:
- Municipal commonage administration in the Northern Cape: can municipalities promote emergent farming?
- Market access for small-scale farmers in South Africa
- Municipal commonage administration: can the new-look municipalities promote emergent farming?
- How a smallholder farmer entered and remained in the export market for thirty years
- Visit to Italy for the purpose of attending 18th Symposium of the International Farming Systems Association at the Salesianum, Rome
- The socioeconomics of subsistence farmers
- Land-reform politics in South Africa's countryside
- The socioeconomics of subsistence farmers and the contribution of the social sciences to agricultural development
- Strategies to support South African smallholders as a contribution to government's second economy strategy
- Nourishing rural poverty - South Africa's unchanging land relations
- Can land and agrarian reform in South Africa create opportunities for smallholder farmers and help reduce rural poverty?
- Small-scale agriculture, employment and an all-inclusive rural economy
- Factors influencing the use of alternative land cultivation technologies in Swaziland: implications for smallholder farming on customary Swazi nation land
- Mapping access and quality of water in South Africa: how far have we come?
- How do small farm households benefit from ICT access and use?
- The gendered dimensions of farming systems and rural farmer households in the context of food security: a pilot study of small-scale livestock farmers in Marble Hall and Rhenosterkop
- The socioeconomics of livestock keeping in two South African communities: a black man's bank
- What factors determine household food security among smallholder farmers?: insights from Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Gains for women from farmland redistribution in South Africa and sustainable pathways out of poverty: insights from recent evidence
- Ensuring access to water for food production by emerging farmers in South Africa: are we there yet?