Unlocking the rural tourism potential of the Limpopo province of South Africa: Some strategic guidelines

Inadequate economic restructuring and a decline in agricultural production in South Africa have reduced the economic opportunities of rural communities. They have limited the economic development options of rural areas, rendering older development strategies less viable and forcing many to look for alternative methods to help them survive and prosper. Rural tourism and its associated businesses have emerged among the most popular non-traditional options for rural development, because of their ability to generate income and jobs. This study examines national and international strategies for developing tourism, and investigates the opinions of participants in the tourism industry of the Limpopo province, with a view to identifying the key strategic issues that can ensure the success of rural tourism. The research consisted of a literature study, field surveys, and interviews with policy-makers and administrators, tourism operators, academics and tourists. The results identify rural tourism as a viable development tool for Limpopo province. Six strategic issues were identified as fundamental for its success. It is believed that these guidelines could also be applied to other rural provinces, thus creating a generic strategy for developing rural tourism.     

Thinking regionally: Aviation and development implications in the Karoo region,South Africa

This study focuses on regional economic development in South Africa, across provincial political jurisdictions. The article argues that remote hinterlands can be more usefully understood as forming an integrated whole, rather than functioning as the poor rural cousins of their provincial metropoles. This article considers three propositions: that key transport projects (such as airports) may unlock regional development; that this may stimulate regional spatial integration; and that this may spur the South African government to address its weak regional planning system. All three propositions are speculative, drawn from the international literature, but they contribute to an argument for greater spatial coherence in South African planning in rural regions. The argument is illustrated with reference to the Karoo region of South Africa, and the potential of a new airport to impact on regional economic dynamics. Furthermore, the article argues that such impacts will require new regional planning systems, which are currently absent from the South African political system.     

Some poor and invisible women: Farm labourers in South Africa

This article presents the results of a prevalence survey carried out in 1994 to assess the socio‐economic significance of waged farmwork in parts of the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga). The survey was designed to shed light on the question of how many rural households depend for their survival on the availability of wage employment opportunities for women on farms. The results support the view that economists and statisticians in South Africa have paid insufficient attention to the importance of unrecorded, or statistically ‘invisible’ agricultural wage employment to the rural population. In particular, the importance of women's work as waged farm labourers has not received the attention it deserves for policy purposes. Women's wages and working conditions on all types of farms are probably the critical determinants of the standard of living of many tens of thowsands of households in Mhala and Mapulaneng, and of many millions of the poorest households in South Africa as a whole.     

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT: ECONOMIC SPIN-OFFS AND LINKAGES

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is a concerted effort by Africa's political leaders to develop a comprehensive and integrated strategic policy framework to raise current levels of socio‐economic development and reduce high levels of poverty across the African continent. The NEPAD framework recognises the need for African countries to pool their resources together in order to enhance regional development and economic integration. To this end, NEPAD emphasises capacity building and also seeks to solicit and disburse funds towards infrastructural development programmes and poverty alleviation projects, among others. South Africa's involvement with the rest of Africa has increased significantly since 1994. Trade exports, foreign direct investment (both market and resource‐seeking in nature) and public‐private partnerships have mushroomed in many parts of the continent. Many South African firms are providing the financial impetus for the infrastructural development and rehabilitation of African economies. This paper discusses salient economic linkages between South Africa and the rest of Africa within the framework of NEPAD. South Africa is the economic hub of sub‐Saharan Africa (and indeed of the African continent), with significant agricultural, manufacturing and services capacity. South African firms have invested in the development of a number of sectors in the rest of Africa, taking advantage of the new investment incentives offered by the NEPAD framework. The target sectors range from mining, the hospitality industry, engineering and construction, finance to telecommunications. These investments and economic involvements are crucial to the development of African countries and the relevant sectors that are important for the realisation of some of the objectives of NEPAD.     

Tenure security and productivity in small‐scale agriculture in Zimbabwe: Implications for South Africa

This article tests empirically the interaction between land tenure security and agricultural productivity in small‐scale agriculture in Zimbabwe. Data for the analysis were gathered during April and August of 1995 by means of an interview survey of farmers in the small‐scale commercial sector, communal area and Model A resettlement area of Zimbabwe. Two‐stage least squares regression estimates reveal that land tenure security has a positive and significant influence on investment incentives and agricultural productivity in the sample. This result has two important implications for proposed land reforms in South .. Africa. Firstly, the result lends support to the notion that indigenous tenure institutions in communal areas of South Africa are a constraint on agricultural development. Secondly, it is clear that a national land redistribution policy must be accompanied by innovative tenure institutions which facilitate economic interaction and internalise externalities on land resettled by individuals and groups. This is particularly important in South Africa where groups of up to 300 families are being settled on commercial farms under a group ownership model.     

The economic development approach to legal reform for rural women: A methodological alternative

Legislative efforts to promote rural women's economic productivity have focused on strategies for improving access to and control over agricultural resources. Women make up 50 per cent of the world's farmers, but in many developing countries they are unable to hold or manage productive resources in their own name. Most legal proposals recommend family law reform as the entry point for change. This article argues for a broader approach. All the laws that affect rural economic development should be evaluated and linked in ways that promote rural women's integration into the economic mainstream. In agriculture the‐most important legislation is natural resource management, local government development and agricultural development and agricultural investment laws, including research, intellectual property protection, cooperatives, banking and marketing. Each law should be assessed from the perspective of four generic development attributes: how it contributes to women's representation in policymaking; what economic benefits it provides; whether it facilitates the evolution of organisational structures to help women attract capital; and whether there are clear systems for enforcing rights and therefore minimising risk. Next, the process is reversed to determine how the laws collectively support each of the four areas. This methodology allows the researcher to tease out and rearrange essential elements of a comprehensive enabling environment that provide a sufficient level of institutional support in all four areas across the entire spectrum of agricultural development.     

Land degradation in South Africa: Conventional views,changing paradigms and a tradition of soil conservation

Land degradation is currently a major concern in South Africa. However, awareness of the problem and attitudes towards it have changed little over the past century. Soil erosion and veld degradation are continually being depicted as acute problems, and overpopulation, overstocking and poor agricultural practices are viewed as the major causal factors. Internationally, however, a new paradigm is emerging, which takes a somewhat more optimistic view of the situation in Africa. One of the basic tenets of this changing perception is that there exists an untapped wealth of indigenous knowledge about the environment and associated human potential. Within this context, this study examines and describes the local tradition of stone terracing on cropland within the former Venda in the Northern Province of South Africa. This living tradition has deep historic roots and local farmers have a remarkably well‐developed understanding of the causes and effects of erosion. While the research location is unique in many ways, this study indicates that farmer tradition and innovation in the former homelands may be more common than has been supposed, and should not be ignored but actively sought out and built upon.     

The contribution of agricultural economics to development

Agricultural economics is an applied discipline with a broadly based application to development theory. The importance of agriculture in economic development has led to pressing demands on the role which agricultural economists are required to play. At all stages, a major part of the planning and implementation input is contributed by agricultural economists. The development of agricultural economics was therefore dynamic as well as problem related. Within the Southern African development context, the agricultural economist has had a long standing involvement. For example, Professor F R Tomlinson chaired the important Tomlinson Commission in the 1950s, while Dr Simon Brand is the Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Both are agricultural economists. In general, agricultural economics has contributed to the fields of research and training, smallholder and rural development, project planning and management, and the formulation, planning and analysis of macro‐policy.     

The impacts of tourism investment on rural communities: Three case studies in South Africa

Significant research, both locally and internationally, has been undertaken on tourism development and its impacts on the empowerment of rural communities. This article analyses the extent to which three tourism projects in South Africa, namely the Makuleke tourism initiative, Umngazi River Bungalows and the commercialisation of Manyeleti Game Reserve, have improved the livelihoods of rural communities and contributed to rural economic development. The projects are analysed in terms of both their economic and non-economic benefits, as well as their contribution towards the attainment of certain key policy objectives of the South African government.     

Monitoring and evaluation of women's rural development extension services in South Africa

In South Africa, rural women's extension services are frequently based on the Western, middle-class ideology of a woman's place being in the private or domestic sphere of the home. Consequently, almost all extension services have a home economics feature which advocates the teaching of Western-type domestic skills, such as sewing, crocheting, knitting, cookery and child care, to name a few. The home economics extension services offered to rural women are inappropriate and ineffective in relation to women's triple role pertaining to reproductive, economic and community managing activities. Furthermore, most of the extension services are irrelevant to the real conditions of poverty prevailing in rural areas. Much of the planning of extension services is based on the needs of rural communities as decided by policy planners. Even where participatory approaches have been adopted, the monitoring and evaluation of progress made in achieving the objectives are often neglected. This article defines the concepts of monitoring and evaluation, explains their purposes in rural extension services, identifies suitable indicators for measuring sustainability of programmes, and highlights appropriate methods for collecting, handling and analysing data. In recognition of the inadequacies of and confusion in women's rural extension programmes, the article encourages reorientation of the processes used in monitoring and evaluating agricultural and rural development extension services in South Africa.     

Telecentres for sustainable rural development: Review and case study of a South African rural telecentre

This paper evaluates a South African rural telecentre that may serve as a ‘best practice’ model. The paper first provides a brief literature review of telecentres and the role of information and communication technology in economic development. A qualitative evaluation of a case study is presented within the context of sustainability considerations and development outcomes; that is, showing how the telecentre has improved the lives of the rural community at Thabina. Some of the observed economic development impacts are listed in the paper and an attempt is made to capture the essence of the vital links between the use of information and communication technology (technology transfer), human development, education and economic development.     

The role of politics in the migration of Zimbabwean teachers to South Africa

This paper contributes to the debate on the role played by the political crisis in Zimbabwe in causing teacher migration to South Africa in the presence of other social and economic drivers. The paper uses data collected through a questionnaire self-administered by 100 Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa (migrants) and another 100 in Zimbabwe (non-migrants). In-depth interviews with a few migrant teachers were used to supplement these data. Although it was the second most mentioned reason for the teachers' migration to South Africa, the role played by political violence or repression in Zimbabwe in causing this migration should not be downplayed. Most migrant teachers came from Zimbabwean schools affected by political violence to a large extent before or after the 2008 presidential elections, especially rural areas. Teachers that held positions or distributed opposition party regalia were mostly displaced by violence. There is an urgent need for political transformation to more democratic rule in Zimbabwe.     

From communal grazing to ‘economic’ units: Changing access to land in a Namaqualand reserve

Because of their predominantly technical and economic orientation, many development agencies tend to overlook the social implications of the development projects that they initiate. People's perceptions and wishes are often not taken adequately into account, and existing social patterns are severely compromised, if not destroyed, by such undertakings. This article assesses the impact of a development project in the Richtersveld rural Coloured area of Namaqualand and argues that the impact of such schemes, as well as people's reactions to them, must ultimately be seen within the context of their broader regional and South African political and economic setting.     

An economic assessment of the value of cattle to the rural communities in the former Venda region

This article assesses the economic value of livestock to rural communities in quantitative terms. A quantitative valuation of livestock is assessed in terms of milk production, manure use, draught power and offtake/sales criteria. The study is based on a cross-sectional survey of 125 small-scale cattle farmers interviewed in the Venda region of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The results of the study estimated the average total value of an adult cow to be R1 152. This value should be viewed as an opportunity cost of the cattle. A quantitative valuation of livestock is important in indicating the degree of impact of cattle mortalities on the livelihood of rural households. In addition, it offers important guidelines for farmers' compensation by the government, should a disaster occur.     

The main findings of the district pilot project of labour‐intensive road construction and maintenance in Botswana and the implications for similar projects in South Africa

Unemployment has been identified as one of the main problems confronting South Africa. Recently, in order to improve rural infrastructure and create employment, several pilot projects of rural road construction have been initiated in South Africa. In such a context it is considered that attention should be drawn to a pilot project carried out some time ago in Botswana to examine the potential of labour‐intensive methods in the construction and maintenance of rural roads.

The main conclusion of the pilot project was that labour‐intensive methods were viable, although attention had to be paid to several critical factors. In 1982, following its evaluation of the pilot project, the Government of Botswana decided that over the next five years the technical and organisational methods developed during the pilot project should be replicated throughout Botswana.

After a brief survey of the background to the project, the paper summarises several important features of the pilot project and its main findings. The paper closes with some comments on the implications of this pilot project for those currently underway in South Africa.     

Exchange rate volatility and agricultural trade under policy reforms in South Africa

Decades of government intervention have helped develop the South African agriculture sector to its present state. Policy reforms have included trade and exchange rate policies to increase the country's international competitiveness, reduce poverty and promote economic growth. These reforms are facilitating the growth in agricultural trade and South Africa's reintegration into the global economy. Annual agricultural exports and imports have increased. This paper uses annual data and a vector error-correction model to investigate the supply and demand relationships for agricultural trade flows in South Africa during the past four decades. The results show that prices, real exchange rates, domestic production capacity and real incomes have significant impacts on the country's agricultural trade. In particular, exchange rate volatility has negative impacts. This cannot be viewed solely as an exogenous source of macroeconomic instability in South Africa, as domestic policies play a crucial role in influencing the movement of exchange rates.     

Producer cooperative resettlement projects in Zimbabwe: Lessons from a failed agricultural development strategy

Zimbabwe epitomizes the contradictions driving the failure of state-directed agricultural development policies. In its second decade of independence, the government takes the credit for the country's agricultural and rural development success. Zimbabwe's “Green Revolution” record in Africa is enviable. Yet, this peasantry-led success story is problematic. It hides serious policy flaws in development strategy, namely, lack of performance and waste characterizing the Model B producer cooperative resettlement projects. Individually and collectively, the cooperatives, the government's preferred mode of production, are a complete failure. Lessons for development programs elsewhere, and in emergent South Africa, in particular are clear. The political economy of government assistance is not sufficient to produce agricultural surpluses and sustainable development. The social economy of cooperation in production organization by Africa's traditional farmers also does not, necessarily, translate into modern cooperatives, as Zimbabwe's policy makers assumed. Producer cooperatives are unproductive because of the prevailing organizational culture which enables leading members to seek individual self-interest and private gain, making it hard for the rank and file to cooperate and work for the common good.     

Rural development in Hertzog,Eastern Cape: Successful local economic development?

The government's recently released rural development strategy identifies the important role which local economic development can play in the rural areas of South Africa. This article examines the key features of local economic development and the degree to which recent initiatives in the rural village of Hertzog conform with the basic principles of local economic development. The recent establishment of an agriculture cooperative and smallholder farming on irrigated one‐hectare plots forms the basis of the initiative. Community structures, strategies and achievements are outlined and assessed.     

后现代农业:包容性增长理念下中国现代农业发展的新趋势

现代农业在获得巨大发展的同时,也产生了诸如土地资源和生态环境破坏严重、人类安全健康突出、农村与城市发展失衡等问题。文章认为,未来时期以追求人、经济、社会、生态协调可持续发展的后现代农业是我国农业发展的导向,应坚持农业生产与环境保护并重;创新农业生产经营模式,同步促进农业发展、扩大就业和民生改善;加强农村教育建设,推进农业产业水平提高和农村与城市的协调发展。     

Development policy and water services in South Africa: an urban poverty perspective

This paper explores the impact of overall macroeconomic development policy on water service delivery policy and urban poverty in South Africa. It scrutinises ambiguous definitions of ‘urban’ in the literature, which tend to obscure the extent of urban poverty in this country. This is crucial given that a large proportion of the urban poor live in informal settlements, which are sometimes lumped with rural areas. Informal settlements are generally characterised by limited essential services such as housing, water supply, storm-water facilities and sanitation services. Water services, like other social services, retain the racial imprint of apartheid. Consequently, water policy in South Africa attempts to address water issues from an equity perspective. By analysing the effects of the tariff subpolicy within the water policy, the paper recommends that free basic water should be made available only to poor households.