Assessing rangeland conditions on land reform farms in South Africa: a national analysis of the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy farms

Abstract

The conservation of natural resources to ensure the long-term sustainability of agriculture is a national priority. Likewise, reforming South Africa’s land and agrarian structure remains a key objective. However, balancing agricultural reform with the sustainable use of natural resources remains challenging. This study contributes to this body of work by analysing rangeland capability and its determinants on farms redistributed under the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS). A national survey of 1 752 farms was conducted, capturing information on farm manager demographics, farm characteristics and performance. Using published natural resource capability datasets, GPS coordinates of each farm and Surveyor-General cadastral boundaries projected through Google Maps, an interdisciplinary panel of scientists assessed the rangeland productivity of PLAS farms. The Tobit regression results indicate that factors such as the risk of bush encroachment, commercial productivity, gender of the farm manager, tenure security and climate capability were statistically significant in explaining variations in rangeland capability scores. As such, climate-change adaptation should be prioritised in rangeland management. Strengthening the public agricultural extension service by employing more rangeland ecologists could also ensure the sustainability of rangelands.