Agriculture

Land Reform

South Africa's agricultural sector is characterised by a dual agricultural economy, with a well-developed commercial sector and a subsistence sector in communal areas (formerly the homelands). About 13% of South Africa’s total area is arable, with the remaining bulk of the land used for grazing.

The country’s history of colonial occupation, dispossession and racial discrimination under apartheid resulted in great inequities in land distribution, with blacks being restricted to reserves constituting about 13% of the land surface while the bulk became the private property of white individuals. The state’s land reform programme, which aims to transfer 30% to black ownership by 2014, involves restitution, redistribution and tenure reform. This includes the grasslands, and future land owners will be key stakeholders as stewards in the Programme.

Farming

The extent of commercial farms in the grasslands biome is 32,44-million hectares. The leading economic performers in terms of cultivation in the biome are maize (49% of commercially cropped land), sugar cane, groundnuts, soya beans and sunflowers. The extent of land dedicated to maize crops is expected to decline over the next 5 years, but this is likely to be substituted by other crops (particularly for biofuels).

Virtually the entire grassland area that is not cultivated is used as rangeland – either for sheep or cattle. The biome contains up to 6,4-million cattle (50% of South Africa’s beef cattle) and 13-million sheep (58% of the country’s flock). Many farmers are mixed farmers; and as the financial prospects for maize declines, more livestock farming tends to occur. In general, however, livestock is much less profitable than cropping in terms of profit per unit area. The commercial game ranching industry has shown extraordinary growth during the past 40 years.

Anticipated Changes

Key drivers of agricultural change are expected to include political transformation; exchange and interest rates; global warming and climate change; fluctuating food production in neighbouring countries (South Africa will increase production to meet demand if this declines); biomass fuel production; and the economic outlook for specific agricultural enterprises.