The Land and Agrarian Reform and Food Security: Lessons for South Africa

Abstract

The article argues that in those countries where agrarian reforms have not been
undertaken, or worse, have not been concluded; the monopolisation of land ownership by the landlord class provides it with economic basis for the domination and exploitation of those without land. Through a redistribution of land and other resources, agrarian reform seeks to restructure the exploitative relations of production, which constitute the agrarian
question. Hence the aim of this article is to create a historical review of the land and
agrarian issues in developing countries in general, and in Africa in particular, as
well as map up a landscape of the political economy of land and agrarian reform in the
current millennium, and demonstrate how these relate to the issue of food security.

Africa Insight Vol. 38 (2) 2008: pp. 1-12