Die Stedelike Ontwikkelingsproses en Die Suid-Afrikaanse Boeregemeenskap

Abstract

Abstract URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN FARMING COMMUNITY: The comparative lagging and skewness of farm income is an immanent agricultural problem in South Africa and the developed countries in the West generally. To solve this so called farm problem, the role of the farmer as manager is of major importance. A farmer's degree of managerial progressiveness and the degree to which he has accepted the influences ofthe urbanization process are highly correlated and are major ,factors that determine the modern farmer's fiinancial success. By moving from a gemeinschaft to a gesellschaft society the farmer becomes increasingly critical of his financial results while taking into account possible eff fects his production decisions can have on his production factors. In South Africa the necessary tendencies typifying the integration of a rural gemeinschaft society into a gesellschaft society are present. These tendencies can broadly be classified as the development of the rural areas as a market for industrial-commercially produced goods and services, the increasing dependance of the farmer on a monetary economy and the breakdown of traditional rural societies and the integration of these societies into the larger gesellschaft society. These tendencies were brought about by structural changes of a techno-economic nature unknown to the farmer. He had to adjust to new ideologies, values and goals. This process is known as the urbanization of the rural societies and the uneven acceptance of this process by farmers and rural societies is a major obstruction in solving the farm problem. Research results point out that. generally, the smaller farmer tends to isolate himself from the urbanization process with the result that his progressiveness remains inadequate and the necessary re-allocation of production factors among farmers is impeded.