Moving beyond substence : systemic integrity in commercialising homestead agriculture, with the Ezemvelo Farmers Organisation, KwaZulu-Natal.
Loading...
Date
2012
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The transformation of South Africa’s rural communal spaces into an economically
viable, socially stable and harmonious sector is currently on the political agenda, the
efforts of the public sector to achieve this however have fallen far short of the intended
goal leaving subsistence and emerging farmers with little or no support. A current
decline in agricultural activity in South Africa’s rural areas threatens to weaken even
further the strength of rural economies. Calls for the return of ‘peasant’ agriculture to
the political and academic agendas and a clarion call for South African farmers to rewrite
their history lie within the problem of sustaining humanity with the economic,
social, environmental and temporal dimensions as a driver for development. This
thesis interprets the activities and behaviours that defined the innovative response of
small-scale commercial farmers in KwaZulu-Natal who role model ‘farming’ as a
‘way of life’ in communal land spaces.
The focus of the research was to interpret a useful meaning in the re-negotiation of
power relationships between producers and their market. It conceptualised the process
of individuals who had determined, and continue to define, their future. The events
observed over the three years of field work, offered the possibility of generating an
emergent solution to re-inventing farming as a way of life as season by season,
decisions were made at the individual homestead level, collectively at community
level and between internal and external decision-makers for market oriented
agriculture as an additional farming strategy.
A constructivist epistemology, relying on a pragmatic approach to using grounded
theory methods within a participatory process, constituted the study design. The
research focussed only on emic issues as the ‘culture’ or social and material priorities
of the agronomic system in transition. For this reason, sensitising concepts were drawn
from within the context to limit the scope and analysis of the study. Following the
field work and write up, the literature of agrarian change was used to locate the study
and consider the practical contribution of the study.
This research identified that ‘successful’ commercial homestead agriculture was the
result of changes in mind-set that allowed for new norms and behaviours for farming practice and for relationships. These shifts provided leverage points for overcoming
resistance between producers and markets in accommodating a sustainable market oriented
agronomy. Influencing the change was the impact of informed decision making,
which brought the stakeholders together through the sharing of values and
beliefs. Success was interpreted as using the market-orientated production of
amadumbe to tap into the factors that sustained and created social cohesion, as well as
those that stimulated agricultural activity. This emphasis encouraged the capacity for
development and cultivation of sustainability. The research proposes that deliberate
interdependence between producers and markets creates the incentive for development
that is self-determining, sustainable and derives economic benefits from agricultural
activity.
This research contributes towards understanding how to re-define commercialisation
as an inherent characteristic of traditional agricultural practice and, within this, a
meaningful description for stakeholders of the social impact of a deliberate and
mutually determined reconstruction of livelihood reality through a farmer-market researcher
relationship. The research introduces the need for a new way of engaging
over agriculture in communal spaces; how Discourse is defined and managed; for
whom the results of evaluation and monitoring are aimed; and to whom the results of
research belong. The research raises consciousness of the need for a space within
which dialogue and support for sustaining social agriculture and the role that research
institutions could play.
The product of this research is a theory whose core variable defines successful
commercial homestead agriculture as a dimension of systemic integrity between
internal and external economic interactions. Systemic integrity has been defined as
the process by which commercialisation of traditional agriculture has been
demonstrated through tapping into the motivations that stimulate agricultural activity
and nurturing social cohesion as the framework for legitimate development
partnerships. The findings contribute to the discussion of how to unlock the
technological and productive potential of rural communities within the images of
supportiveness, solidarity, and communalism that produce food for the survival of
humanity in a contemporary and dynamic world.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.
Keywords
Farms, Small--KwaZulu-Natal., Subsistence farming--KwaZulu-Natal., Farm produce--KwaZulu-Natal., Farmers--KwaZulu-Natal., Traditional farming--KwaZulu-Natal., Households--KwaZulu-Natal., KwaZulu-Natal--Rural conditions., Theses--Agricultural extension and rural resource management.