Livelihoods in the wake of agricultural commercialisation in South Africa's poverty nodes: insights from small-scale irrigation schemes in Limpopo Province

Abstract

Small-scale irrigation farming is envisaged to play a progressively larger role in rural development and to help reduce some inequalities in South Africa's space economy. Since the late 1990s, the government has aimed to ‘revitalise’ government-owned small-scale irrigation schemes, many located in former homelands. Its macro-policy shifts seem to favour the creation of a black farming elite. Important questions are whether neoliberal policies will harm the poorest and most vulnerable in irrigation farming communities, and whether a new class of petty commodity producers can establish themselves in global commodity chains. This paper looks at vulnerability and marginalisation in selected small-scale irrigation schemes in Limpopo Province. The findings suggest that existing approaches to agricultural commercialisation may not reduce rural poverty and inequality. Although these approaches help to integrate resource-poor irrigation farmers into globalised commodity production sectors, they could undermine the livelihoods of the poorest and most vulnerable in these communities.