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farming expertise to fully implement the objectives of the project (Cullen, Alger
& Rambaldi, 2005: 749), although mechanisms were put in place to close this gap through the provision of training. There was little land allocated to the communities while about 4 million was expropriated properties. The new system of land allocation did not give the poor and illiterate farmers title deeds to the properties. This had a negative impact on the farmers, development because they could not get loan against their properties.
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need to be equipped to organise the necessary engagement. Public officials face too much pressure from politicians, especially in the departments that deal with land matters.
While countries like China opted to nationalise all the land, other countries left the land in the hands of the private owners and relied on market forces for redistribution. This discussion has illustrated that when the state has control and ownership of the land it is able to control the reform process. This results in improved achievement of the objectives. China is a good example. It adopted a model in which the state retained ownership of the land and allowed corporations to use the land. It clearly delinked ownership from usage. As a result, it could dictate the terms of the use of the land to ensure that its objectives were met. This is one of the challenges that countries like South Africa face, where the focus is on ownership and less on land-use rights. Since land is a very scarce resource, it would be beneficial for countries to focus on land-use rights together with ownership.
It has also emerged that the willing-buyer willing-seller model has contributed to the slow pace of land reform in countries where it was adopted. Countries like Namibia, for example, depleted their budgeted resources for land acquisition. This suggests that governments should look at a model where they have a way of influencing the price while still respecting property rights.
There are numerous lessons to learn from Brazil’s land reform programme.
The Brazilian model serves as a good example of the importance of partnerships to improve service delivery. NGOs can assist land reform communities with training or capacity building. South Africa’s Department of Rural Development and Land Reform can learn from this Brazilian approach.
Besides land reform communities partnering with NGOs, the private sector can also enter into partnerships with land reform communities. The purpose of such partnerships would be to train the communities in management and finances.
This could include workshops on how to coordinate daily farming activities and new methods of farming. Such partnerships can be arranged with commercially established farmers. These partnerships can also be introduced at farm level
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where a commercially established farmer offers his/her emerging neighbours mentorship. Time frames should be attached to this process. Partnerships could also be introduced at local government level (i.e., municipal level) and at national level. National government should consider developing policies to regulate how these partnerships are administered.
Land reform is a complex and complicated process. This implies that in the design and implementation of land reform policies, there should be constant monitoring and evaluation, in order to identify any gaps and correct such. Both politicians and officials should be able to monitor and evaluate policy.
Politicians are best placed because they formulated the laws that lead to the policy design. There should be a team to monitor whether the set policy is capable of meeting its intended objectives. Officials are also capable of monitoring and evaluating the policy, because they implement it through various programmes. They are capable of identifying the gaps that exist within a set policy.
A good policy needs to be formulated through a bottom-up approach, because it is at the grassroots that its merits are going to be visible. The grassroots is where the implementation will be taking place, so why not start there when constituting a new policy? In China for example, as part of the reform process, the country went from peasant farming to collective farming and then back to peasant farming again and this was strongly influenced by the catastrophic famine of 1958-1961. As a result, agricultural production was badly affected by the various changes.
Some of the lessons that were learnt from this comparative study are:
The success of land reform requires that there be monitoring and evaluation at all levels, particularly the department that is tasked with the responsibility.
Land redistribution should be complemented with measures such as improved access to inputs. The output markets need to be liberalised and agricultural trade terms need to be improved. This worked successfully in China after the policy change due to the famine. This
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approach led to an increase in performance in the agricultural sector, and raised growth rates and living standards throughout the country.
The application and implementation of the land reform programme should not be to the detriment of other inhabitants. More specifically, property rights need to be respected. Zimbabwe is a case in point where farm workers were displaced when farms were acquired.
Partnerships should be encouraged between land reform communities and the other stakeholders, such as private businesses, commercial farmers, and NGOs. These partnerships can assist in training and capacity building in the required skills. Brazil has successfully implemented such partnerships.
Structural adjustments to land reform do not seem to contribute towards poverty reduction, as was the case in India.
The communal conservancy set up by the Namibian government is something other countries can learn from. This afforded communal farmers the same rights as those on private land. The communal farmers were given an opportunity to acquire and manage game farms so that they can benefit from the wildlife.
The chapter has indicated extensively on how varying countries have struggled with the land policy and its implementation. Various models that countries adopted were discussed as well as the merit and demerits. The next chapter focuses on the review of land reform in Limpopo province.
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