Municipal commonage in South Africa: a critique of artificial dichotomies in policy debates on agriculture

Abstract

The paper critiques Vetter’s (in this issue) assertion that commercialisation of smallholder agriculture holds dangers for sustainable rangeland management. The paper argues that a range of policy options are required, including commercialisation and subsistence farming, large-scale and smallholder farming, a range of land tenure options, rural and peri-urban farming, and part-time farming. The case of municipal commonage land is useful to show the effectiveness of a flexible range of policy options regarding land ownership, farming scale and the social nature of farming. However, the key requirement, in all cases, is effective institutional development.

Keywords: commonage, institutions, municipalities, peri-urban, policy, smallholders

African Journal of Range & Forage Science 2013, 30(1&2): 29–34