Emerging black farmers’ practices and state support to them : a study of three government Agriparks in South Africa

Abstract

This study examines the political and economic challenges that confront agrarian change by looking into how the Agriparks, set up under the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, support emerging black farmers’ practices to achieve equity. To do this, I examine the global agrarian context, discourses on farmer practices, the global expansion of neoliberal capitalism by means of public-private partnerships, and the commodification and commercialisation of agriculture production, especially in the context of justice and equality. Through studying existing literature and case studies in Agriparks in Gauteng, Limpopo and Northern Cape, I explore issues of emerging black farmer practices, the state and private sector’s role, and justice and equality in the agrarian sector. Within the case studies I used qualitative research and ethnographic methods, such as go-along interviews and semi-structured interviews with emerging black farmers and key informants. Agriparks, and their particular racial form in South Africa, emerge within a context of, on the one hand, global neoliberal agro-industrialisation and commercialisation and, on the other hand, historical land dispossession, growing inequality, environmental stresses, and counter-movements such as food sovereignty. Agriparks are a local manifestation of the agro-cluster model that is embedded in a particular corporate and industrialised model of agricultural development. This approach to farming puts responsibility for dealing with farming, production and distribution challenges increasingly in the hands of private interests as part of the promotion of a particular neoliberal approach to agricultural development. This model simply does not work for the majority of small-scale and marginalised farmers in the context of failed land reforms and a still highly divided society and agricultural sector. The analysis suggests that the state needs to better align interventions to further emerging black farmer achievements and to bolster sustainability and the realisation of justice and equality. It also demonstrates the importance of building capacity for change and focusing on successful farmer practices, actions and changes that are efficient and effective. Pre-existing institutional racism in the sector impacts the implementation of the Agriparks programme and needs to be addressed in reshaping it for the future. I advocate a Critical Race Theory of Agrarian Reform to configure post-apartheid agrarian reforms and tools to analyse and inform changes in the agrarian sector.