Land Reform Programme for the Western Cape
The UTA conducted an evaluation of the Land Reform programme in the Western Cape. The report is summarized below:
The Unit for Technical Assistance was requested to conduct an evaluation of the Land Reform Programme in the Western Cape Province. The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the rate of success on a sample taken from 246 agricultural land reform projects supported by the Department of Agriculture from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2013 through the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) and/or Ilima-Letsema. The study forms part of the outcomes’ measurement in terms of the performance evaluation on Western Cape Government Strategic Goal 1: To ensure that at least 60% of all land reform projects in the Province are successful over the next five years. It seeks to answer questions to determine the level of success of farms, such as the ability of project farms to reinvest finances, the existence of Market Access contracts, etc. The summary of the evaluation is summarised below:
- On average, the project farms have 78 beneficiaries each. The majority of beneficiaries are not actively involved (60%), followed by 30% who are actively involved on a day-to-day basis, and 10% who are actively involved on a part-time basis.
- The gender distribution of beneficiaries is relatively even, with females accounting for 51% of beneficiaries and males 49%.
- Approximately 1.5% of project beneficiaries are disabled, which suggests a concerted effort to integrate disabled persons into the farms
- Approximately half of the beneficiaries are youths (18‒35 years of age) or younger.
- The agricultural experience of beneficiaries at the project start is as follows: more than five years’ experience (58%), no agricultural experience (31%), and less than five years’ experience (11%).
- The average size of project farms evaluated is 781 hectares (ha), although 25% of the project farms are small and less than 10 ha in size.
- The average minimum daily wage paid to farm workers is R100 per day, although 78% of project farms pay R105 per farm worker or more per day, which is the 2013 legally required minimum daily wage.
- Project farms are indebted by an average of R1.85 million, which includes those project farms with no debt (65%). For the project farms that have debt, the majority (89%) have indicated that they are capable of servicing their debts. Approximately 69% of project farms have also revealed that they are able to reinvest finances into their business, which is a positive indication for successful undertakings.
- The table below illustrates the project performance of the sample taken of 135 projects (55% of the project supported by the Western Cape Department of Agriculture).
Projects classification |
Number of projects farms |
Share |
Highly successful (score: 73%–100%) | 15 project farms | 11% |
Moderately successful (53%–72%) | 69 project farms | 51% |
Successful (53%–100%) | Sub-total: 84 project farms | 62% |
Challenged (33%–52%) | 32 project farms | 24% |
Failed (0%–32%) | 19 project farms | 14% |
Unsuccessful (0%–52%) | Sub-total: 51 project farms | 38% |
TOTAL |
135 project farms |
100% |
-
- Approximately 62% of the projects supported by the Western Cape Department of Agriculture are successful.
- 11% of the projects are classified as being highly successful.
- Approximately half of the project farms are classified as doing moderately well.
- A quarter are classified as being challenged, 14% have failed and 24 are classified as challenged.
- None of the failed farms comply with any of the following aspects, which reveals that these aspects correlate mostly with failed projects and, therefore, are likely to be key reasons contributing to failure: – No beneficiaries previously resided on the farm.
- No Market Access contracts in place.
- No operational loans.
- No Skills Development Plan in place.
- No mentorship or Commodity Committee support received.
- No production records in place. – No beneficiaries anticipate improvements in regularity and consistency of household income.
- No beneficiaries experienced very good/good change in access to food to feed family.
- No beneficiaries experienced very good/good change in standard of physical living conditions.?
- No beneficiaries experienced very good/good change in satisfaction with availability of money for household.
- All highly successful projects have the following aspects in place:
- Registered farm business, VAT and tax registered, bank account holders.
- Beneficiaries anticipate their future financial situation to improve.
- Compliant with labour law in terms of minimum wage and registration for UIF.
- Market access of all produce.
- Good/very good rated support: training courses, mentors, FSD advice, market access.
- Water from a reliable source for farming practices.
- Key task execution for marketing rated as very good/good.
- Business plan exists for current farming practices at start-up.
- Sound financial management record-keeping systems and cash flow.
- Record keeping: monthly income and expenditure statements, production records, annual financial statements, projections of income and expenditure.
The comprehensive report for the Land Reform evaluation is available for public viewing at the Western Cape Department of Agriculture at Muldersvlei Road, Elsenburg. To view this document, kindly arrange with Adele Isaacs (Tel: 021 8085045).