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Livelihoods and landscapes: People, resources and land use

Summary
This chapter brings to a conclusion the main issues that have been raised in the book and provides some ideas on the type of policies that are needed to enhance land-based livelihoods in the Eastern Cape Province and possibly elsewhere in South Africa. In our opinion the key objective of agrarian policy should be the facilitation of a process that can be labelled as repeasantisation (chapter 1). The empirical material in this book shows that there are still remnants of a peasantry in both villages, albeit few and limited in extent. By examining these we simultaneously explored what constitutes the agrarian in contemporary rural villages such as Guquka and Koloni. The evidence presented indicates a long process of retreat of the agrarian in the rural central Eastern Cape province. Critical examination of past and contemporary interventions in these rural areas, such as betterment planning and land and agrarian reform initiatives, raises questions about the role of expert knowledge in rural and agrarian development in South Africa. There are elements of continuity in the approach being used, leading to the conclusion that alternative expert curricula in agriculture and rural development are needed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1001974
Date17 October 2007
CreatorsHebinck, P, van Averbeke, W
PublisherBrill Academic Publishers
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText
FormatPdf
RightsBrill Academic Publishers

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