The following dissertation sets out to investigate the decline of agriculture in Mission location at Butterworth, Transkei, using the Rehabilitation Scheme as a benchmark. The scheme was introduced in 1945 to combat soil erosion and improve agriculture in the African reserve areas, as the South African government claimed. The dissertation argues that this claim by the government served to mask the real intentions behind the scheme namely, to regiment the migrant labour system by depriving as many Africans as possible of productive land so that they were unable to fully subsist by means of agriculture. This is further shown by analysing the impact of the Rehabilitation scheme in Mission location in which a substantial number of people lost arable land as a result of the implementation of the scheme in 1945. These people were consequently denied the wherewithal to subsist by agriculture. Moreover, the efforts of the government resulted to a modernisation of agriculture by making it more cash-based- for example through the introduction of fencing, the need for tractors as a result of a decline in stock numbers (in part as a result of stock culling). Most people could hardly afford this type of agriculture and were consequently forced off the land. The dissertation concludes that indeed the decline of agriculture in Mission location can be linked to the changing agricultural and land-holding practices brought about by the government- especially the introduction of the Rehabilitation scheme.

This study examines the dynamics of agricultural change amongst traditional African smallholder farmers in Shixini location, Gatyana District, Transkei. This entailed an examination of the historical, regional and local causes of agricultural change and the response of the local community. What became evident was that there had been a gradual decline in agricultural output after the 1930s due to a combination of socio-economic and environmental constraints. Pressure on limited resources and land degradation, a consequence of socio-economic pressures on the African peasantry and agricultural expansion, reduced carrying capacities and soil fertility within the African reserves. Racially discriminatory policies also reduced African access to agricultural markets and forced peasants into migrant labour. The initial response to this agricultural decline was to maintain cultivation and pastoral practices, despite declining output, and rely more heavily on migrant labour. However, massive population ~owth from the mid 1950s onwards stimulated a rapid change in cultivation practices. Rural households found it increasingly difficult to gain access to arable land in river valleys and growing poverty undermined their ability to cultivate fields. In response to these conditions the rural population abandoned their fields and expanded garden cultivation. Garden cultivation was a more intensive method of cultivation which made more efficient use of household resources, maintained long-term yields and had a less detrimental impact on the soil. This study attempts to make a contribution to southern African historiography and historical geography. Since the rise of radical human geography in the 1970s there has been a growing number of political economy studies focusing on capitalist expansion, racially discriminatory state policies and associated class conflicts in South Africa. However, most of these studies have focused on urban communities. The political economy of African rural areas has been sorely neglected by human geographers despite the enormous growth of such studies amongst historians and other social scientists. This study of agricultural change in Shixini location, Transkei adds to the small collection of geographical research on the political economy of African rural areas. It also adds to the large body of historical research by focusing on the recent past, a much less well documented period. The most important component of the study was an examination of the response of the rural community to socio-economic and environmental changes. This brought the often neglected role of human agency within the world political economy into the study. Environmental factors, often neglected by'historians and human geographers, were also brought into the analysis. The examination of such a broad range of factors was facilitated through the use of a wide variety of source material including historical, anthropological and socio-economic literature, official statistics, archival records, aerial photographs and a sample survey

Incidences of cooperation in agricultural activity are widespread phenomena in low-income third world communities. Two forms of cooperative labour groupings are identified in Shixini, Transkei . These are the work party and the ploughing company. It is argued that different organisational principles operate in the different cooperative forms. Work parties are based on principles of neighbourhood whi Ie ploughing companies are organised around kinship relationships. Factors which determine the principle of organisation are social values; the wider South African economic system; ecology; reciprocity; the constitution and structure of the household; economic differentiation; and labour demand and supply. The dissertation is divided into five chapters. The first is an overview of the Shixini social, economic and political systems. This chapter discusses the influence of the wider South African politico-economic system on agricultural production; the Shixini!Transkei political context; kinship and its relation to social organisation; and the likely effects of an agricultural 'betterment' scheme on the area. The second chapter is an overview of agricultural production in Shixini. It is found that the most significant determinants of agricultural production is the structure and constitution of the household and the way in which stock is distributed in the community. The third and fourth chapters describe and analyse Xhosa work parties and ploughing companies . Argument is lead as to the reasons for the specific organisational principles operating in each case. The penultimate chapter is an analysis of sacred and secular ritual. It is argued that both ritual forms reveal cooperative principles of organisation. Secular ritual dramatises the organisation of work parties while sacred ritual dramatises kinship relationships and so, the organisation of ploughing companies. / KMBT_363

Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Rural development problems faced by the impoverished communities in the Transkei, South Africa, are numerous, and environmental degradation has already taken much of its toll. By working at a micro-catchment-level both the socio-economic and biophysical appreciation of the land resources were captured as encapsulated in the concept of resource management domains. Participatory decision-making allowed functional land use goals and evaluation criteria to be incorporated into computerised multi-criteria evaluation and multi-objective land use allocation models in order to reach an idealised or more sustainable land use situation. In the execution of the decision-making process seven procedural steps were followed, which are discussed in detail and applied in the case study. Synthesis of the results emphasised the envisaged rural planning potential of the methods used. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In terme van plattelandse ontwikkeling staar talle probleme die behoeftige gemeenskappe van Transkei, Suid-Afrika, in die gesig en omgewingsdegradering neem ongehinderd sy tol. Deur op ‘n mikro-opvangsgebied vlak te werk kon beide die sosio-ekonomiese en biofisiese waarde van die gebied se hulpbronne bepaal word en uitgebeeld word in hulpbron bestuursdomeine. Deur deelnemende besluitneming is funksionele grondgebruiksdoelwitte en evaluasie kriteria gebruik in gerekenariseerde meervoudige kriteria evaluering en veeldoelige grondgebruiksaanwysingsmodelle ten einde die ideale of ‘n meer volhoubare grondgebruik situasie te verkry. Vir die uitvoering van die besluitnemingsproses is van sewe opeenvolgende stappe gebruik gemaak en die uitvoering daarvan word in diepte bespreek in hierdie gevallestudie. Sintese van die resultate het die potensiaal van hierdie beoogde landelike beplanningsmetodes beklemtoon.