Cropland Abandonment in South African Smallholder Communal Lands: Land Cover Change (1950–2010) and Farmer Perceptions of Contributing Factors

Dale Blair, Charlie M. Shackleton and Penelope J. Mograbi
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Dale Blair: Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6139, South Africa
Charlie M. Shackleton: Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6139, South Africa
Penelope J. Mograbi: Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6139, South Africa

Land, 2018, vol. 7, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Despite agricultural land abandonment threatening the food security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, it is pervasive globally and in developing countries. Yet land abandonment is an understudied aspect of land use change in social–ecological systems. Here we provide more information on this phenomenon by exploring cropland abandonment during 1950–2010 in four former South African ‘homelands’—part of the ‘Apartheid’ era racially-based land allocation programs—characterized by rural, smallholder farmers. Cropland abandonment 1950–2010 was widespread in all surveyed sites (KwaZulu: 0.08% year −1 , Transkei: 0.13% year −1 , Lebowa: 0.23% year −1 , Venda: 0.28% year −1 ), with rates peaking between 1970 and 1990, with concomitant increases (up to 0.16% year −1 ) of woody vegetation cover at the expense of grassland cover. Active and past farmers attributed cropland abandonment to a lack of draught power, rainfall variability and droughts, and a more modernized youth disinclined to living a marginal agrarian lifestyle. We discuss the potential social and ecological implications of abandoned croplands at the local and regional scales, as the deagrarianization trend is unlikely to abate considering the failure of current South African national agricultural incentives.

Keywords: agricultural land abandonment; bush encroachment; deagrarianization; homelands; old fields; social–ecological systems; rural farmers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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