Over the past couple of years, the South African government has been offering varied support to households that are engaged in small-scale farming, with the objectives of improving their livelihoods, income and food security. Although the various rounds of the General Household Survey (GHS) gathered information on the type of agricultural support received by the farmers, their production, agricultural income and food security status, there is limited empirical evidence on the extent to which the agricultural support programme is yielding the intended results. Very little is also known about how the beneficiary households perceive the agricultural support programme as either relevant or otherwise. This study fills these gaps in the literature using the GHS data spanning the period 2013 to 2016 to assess how government agricultural development support influences the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in South Africa. This broad objective is divided into two specific objectives: (1) to assess the effects of government agricultural development support on agricultural income, production and food security of beneficiary small-scale farmers in South Africa; and (2) to assess the usefulness of the government agricultural development support for the beneficiary small-scale the government agricultural development support for the beneficiary small-scale farmers in South Africa. By combining descriptive analysis with Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and logistic estimation techniques to address these objectives, the results indicate that from the year 2013 to the 2016 survey years, the proportion of households who have access to agricultural development support has decreased marginally by about two percent. Access to support has remained higher among males than females; farmers who have low levels of education than those with high levels of education. Across provinces access to agricultural support is high in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, North -West and Mpumalanga, but very low in the Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng and Western Cape. The agricultural development assistance given by the South African government is effective in reducing food insecurity, as well as in improving the production and income of the beneficiary smallscale farmers. However, the results suggest that the agricultural support system is having a heterogeneous impact on beneficiary small-scale farmers, depending on their gender and geographical locations. / Agriculture and  Animal Health / M. Sc. (Agriculture)

This study examines rural household food security and its determinants in drought-prone Amhara Region of Ethiopia by focusing on Lay Gaint district as a case study site. A range of factors from physical environmental circumstances to policy and institutions-related issues determine households‟ vulnerability to food insecurity and livelihood outcomes. The survey results showed that the majority (74%) of the sampled households experienced food insecurity. The situation was worse among female-headed households such that 86% of them were food insecure. The study revealed that, despite the low level of productivity related to local environmental constraints, rural livelihoods remain undiversified with small scale rain-fed agriculture to provide the primary source of livelihood for the large majority of households (~93% of respondents). Only about 25% of the respondents participated in some form of non-farm or off-farm activities, but with only little contribution to their total annual incomes. Food insecurity is a chronic problem in that, on average, households in the study area consume from own production for only about six months. The study found out that the majority of households (about 80%) perceived annual rainfall to be inadequate to support the growing of crops and grazing of animals. The main adaptive strategies employed by the majority of households included diversifying livestock kept, planting trees and diversifying crops. The study revealed that incidence, depth and severity of food insecurity of the food insecure households showed that Woina-Dega and Kolla agro-ecologies are prone to vulnerability to food insecurity. This suggests that development interventions that are geographically differentiated; and build household assets will improve household food security in the study area, and in other similar environments in the country. / Geography / D. Phil. (Geography)

The thesis focuses on the social policy dimension of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). Interrogating land reform in the context of Transformative Social Policy (TSP) is a critical lacuna in Zimbabwe’s land reform and dominant social policy literature, implying the absence of a wider vision of social policy. This vision emphasises the consideration of the five tasks of social policy (production, redistribution, reproduction, protection and social cohesion); and acknowledges the symbiotic link between social policy and development. The thesis asks, how did the FTLRP and land occupations unfold; what is the new agrarian structure and, forms of social organisation in the aftermath of the fast track land reform; and how has the programme played out in relation to redistribution, production, social protection, reproduction and social cohesion? The thesis is based on a qualitative-dominant mixed methods research approach, and is complemented by predominantly quantitative data gathered by the African Institute for Agrarian Studies (AIAS), now Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies (SMAIAS); and a sample of 150 A1 land beneficiaries drawn from Dalkeith, Whynhill and St Lucia Farms. Using grounded empirical data gathered in an eight (8) months-long ethnography in Zvimba district, Mashonaland West Province; and transcending ideological and epistemological debates, the thesis argues that, despite shortcomings, the fast track land reform is a crucial social policy ‘instrument’ with immense potential to transform lives. Across the district, land is a core economic, social and political resource that is central in enhancing wellbeing. The centrality of land reform in transforming lives is hampered mainly by land use and production constraints, and as the study results show, this dimension has the least positive outcomes. Diverse targeted support services that are mainly crystallised around land use and production, value chains and markets, are essential. If the farmers are appropriately supported, the benefits of land reform are potentially immense. Overall, land reform must be understood as a transformative social policy initiative and fast track is the case study for demonstrating this. The thesis contributes primarily to approaches and literature on land reform and social policy. / Sociology / D. Lit. et Phil. (Sociology)

This thesis explores questions of gender equality in social welfare theory; methodologies; approaches and policymaking in the Global South in the context of land reforms. This stems from the realisation that gender equality issues in social welfare are increasingly receiving greater attention in the context of the Global North and less in the South. By adopting a Transformative Social Policy framework, the research departs from hegemonic livelihoods, poverty reduction and the ‘classical models’ of land reforms often designed from the mould of the neoliberal discourse of individual tenure to focus on land reform as a relational question. Empirical data was gathered using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach involving survey questionnaires; in-depths interviews; focus group discussions; key informant interviews and field observations. A total of 105 randomly selected households, comprising 56 male-headed households (MHHs) and 49 female-headed households (FHHs) participated in the quantitative component of the study, comprising a control group of nonland reform beneficiaries. Additionally, 30 purposively selected in-depths interviews comprising 20 FHHs and 10 MHHs were conducted in resettlement study sites. Findings from this this study indicates that despite the country’s depressed economic environment and the effects of climate change, transfer of land enhanced the productive capacities of individuals and rural households, including those headed by females. At micro-level, in-kind transfer of land to rural households proved to be a more superior social protection measure compared to either food or cash transfer. However, social relations and institutions proved resistant to change, posing a greater obstacle to social transformation. And more importantly, from a social reproductive perspective, the same land reform that enhanced the productive capacities of women, inadvertently, increased their social reproductive work with implications on the welfare of women relative to men. The thesis makes a contribution to social policy debates in Africa, which hitherto have been dominated by the introduction of cash transfers as witnessed in many countries across the continent. The transformative social policy approach brings novelty to the study of land reforms. By Conceptualising gender as a relational and social construct, the study adds knowledge on the nexus between gender, land reform and welfare using the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) as reference. With the FTLRP––as a leftist policy in a liberalised economy––there is a need for the government to re-align its social and economic policies to avoid inconsistencies in the country’s development path. On the gender front there is need to legislate resettlement areas as outside the jurisdiction of traditional structures; promulgate statutory instruments dealing with land and setting up designated land claims courts linked right up to the Constitutional Court. Specifically, for Chiredzi, there is a need to establish a corporate body to administer the affairs of Mkwasine following the pulling out of the Estate. Keywords: gender, land reforms, water reforms, transformative / Sociology / Ph. D. (Sociology)