Bibliography: Land Degradation in South Africa project

which was held on rangeland policy held under the auspices of the Commonwealth

Secretariat at Matopos, Zimbabwe, in January 1992. It was organised around

commissioned case studies (on Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Nigeria) prepared

by scientists from each of these commonwealth countries. In contrast to an

earlier technical meeting, the Matopos workshop concentrated on the legal,

social and institutional aspects of communal rangeland management, and was aimed

primarily at field personnel, administrators, and policy makers in national

ministries or departments active in range management in African Commonwealth

countries. The workshop was designed to acquaint government officers with

recent theoretical developments in range ecology, and to discuss the

implications of these developments for rangeland policy in their countries.

Conversely, the response of the workshop participants to the new ecological

concepts provided an initial test of the acceptability of these ideas by those

who would ultimately be responsible for their implementation. Some highlights

of this workshop are summarised in this paper.

Ref ID : 2280

413. Behnke, R.H.J. Measuring the benefits of subsistence versus commercial

livestock production in Africa. Agricultural Systems 16:109-135, 1985.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : BOTSWANA; POPULATION

Notes : Three methods for measuring the benefits of commercial and subsistence

livestock production in Africa are discussed: firstly, biological measures of

herd performance are illustrated with material from Botswana; secondly, the

profitability of the herding operation can be measured economically, a technique

which requires the ascription of cash values to in-kind produce. An improved

method for imputing these values is presented; and finally, one can compare the

nutritional status of human populations engaged in commercial and non-commercial

lievestock production. Each of these three techniques provides a limited

description of the total environment which conditions farmer decision-making.

As a general rule, therefore, we should favour a combination of techniques and

exercise considerable skepticism in evaluating the results of any unidimensional

comparison.

Ref ID : 1642

414. Behnke, R.H.J. Open-range management and property rights in pastoral

Africa: a case of spontaneous range enclosure in south Darfur, Sudan. Pastoral

Development Network.Anonymous London:Overseas Development Institute. :1-29,

1985.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : MODELS; POLICY; GRAZING EFFECTS; COMMUNAL AREA; VELD MANAGEMENT; LAND

TENURE

Notes : This paper was originally commissioned by the Overseas Development

Institute. Field work in the Sudan was carried out in association with Mokoro

Ltd. and Hunting Technical Services. It was suggested that the author focus on

the overgrazing problem in light of economic literature on externalities. The

following issues are discussed: the conventional model of communal rangeland

mismanagement; a property rights analysis; a range enclosure movement: the case

of south Darfur, Sudan; and conclusions and policy implications.

Ref ID : 1202

415. Behrmann, H.I. Technique and tenure in South African agriculture.Anonymous

Anonymous Pietermaritzburg:University of Natal Press. Inaugural Lecture , 1965.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : LAND TENURE; LAND USE; AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION; COMMUNAL AREA;

POPULATION; SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Notes 1 : The history of agriculture may be written in two ways: firstly, as a

record of the practices or techniques of agriculture, the methods of production

that have been adopted through the ages; secondly, in terms of the rights or

title to occupy land - hence the title of the inaugral lecture "Technique and

Tenure in Agriculture".

Ref ID : 647

416. Beinart, W. Soil erosion, conservationism and ideas about development: a

southern African exploration, 1900-1960. Journal of Southern African Studies

11(1):52-83, 1984.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : SOIL EROSION; CONSERVATION; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; ENVIRONMENTAL

HISTORY; SOUTHERN AFRICA

Notes : The central issue raised in this paper is the nature and content of

colonial conservationism, and the manner in which it was applied.

Conservationist ideas, it is suggested were generated out of perceived threats

to the future of agrarian production, rather than aesthetic conerns (although

the latter may have influenced their content). As ideas associated with

progressive agrarian capital, and the technical departments of colonial states,

they differed significantly, though by no means completely from those of more

radical conservationists today.

Ref ID : 2428

417. Beinart, W. Transkei small holders and agrarian reform. Journal of

Contemporary African Studies , 1992.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : TRANSKEI; POVERTY; POLICY; POPULATION; LAND REFORM; RURAL

DEVELOPMENT; BETTERMENT PLANNING; RESTORATION; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC

ASPECTS

Notes : The purpose is to investigate and address some issues in the debate on

agrarian reform. The study used some of the detailed material production in

research on Transkei particularly on problems of peasant or small holder

agriculture, rural poverty, aspects of state policy such as rehabilitation and

betterment. Almost all researchers conducted generally indicated that there is

extensive and deep poverty in Transkei and the great majority of people do not

produce anything to make them sufficient for subsistence. A very large

proportion of food requirements - 70% is imported. There is heavy dependence on

migrant workers earnings and this places many people in Transkei in displaced

proletarians. The author feels that movement by small holders onto farms

presently owned by whites is unlikely to make a major difference to the overall

population of Transkei. Food supply, efficiencies and ecological safety need to

be prioritised rather than population of movements. The author suggested that

planners and policy-makers start with the people they are planning for and look

carefully at how they use their land and incomes and how and why they move.

This article can be found in the main library at University of Fort Hare. See

also ref. I.D. no 2339.

Ref ID : 1026

418. Beinart, W. The night of the jackal: sheep, pastures and predators in South

Africa 1900-1930. Paper presented at the Africa Seminar, Centre for African

Studies, University of Cape Town, 18 May 1993. 1993.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY; LEGISLATION; POLICY

Notes : This paper is a preliminary exercise in assessing the implications of

state regulation of stock-farming, grazing and predators in SA. The

significance of such control in shaping 'nature', government bureaucracies and

the relationship between state and its subjects, both white and black, has

probably been underestimated. These issues also became central to the

development of conservationist ideas and policies.

Ref ID : 188

419. Beinart, W. Environmental destruction in sheep farming areas of South

Africa: soil erosion, animals and pastures over the longer term.Anonymous

Bristol:Department of Historical Studies, University of Bristol. :1-25, 1994.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : LAND DEGRADATION; ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY; VELD MANAGEMENT; LIVESTOCK

PRODUCTION; SOIL EROSION; EROSION; RAINFALL

Notes : A great deal of the literature written on SA, which explicitly addresses

environmental issues, paints a picture of decay and destruction over the long

term. One of the most persistent patterns, and an important focus for

commentators, has been soil erosion. In a country where stock is important both

for white and black farmers, overstocking and overgrazing have frequently been

cited as a major cause of denudation, desiccation and erosion. The state of the

settler stock farms and semi-arid areas more generally have been the trigger for

broader debates and discourse about ecological decay in the region. This paper

examines ideas about degradation on white-owned stock farms in the lower

rainfall grazing regions of SA - more than half the area of the country - in the

light of some fascinating recent research in botanical history.

Ref ID : 646

420. Beinart, W. Environmental destruction in southern Africa: Soil erosion,

animals, and pastures over the longer term. In: Time-scales and environmental

change, edited by Driver, T.S. and Chapman, G.P.London and New York:Routledge,

1996,p. 149-167.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : SOIL EROSION; LAND DEGRADATION; GRAZING EFFECTS; VELD CONDITION;

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Notes : The author is concerned, not with climatic change per se, nor with a

global perspective. He uses a case study to show how, during this century

different actors -government officials, scientists, white farmers, black

herders, apartheid politicians, and post-apartheid politicians - have

interpreted environmental change in the rangelands of the Karoo of SA. This is

the human lifetime scale according to which some people believe they can detect

environmental degradation, and seek to find the causes. But as the author

points out, the evidence is very contradictory, and there are unspoken

assumptions about what is right or good in the first place - mostly that,

despite the use of the rangelands for stocking, somehow they should remain the

same, in some undefined equilibrium, and further that white settlement meant

progress, even if it had a few managerial hiccoughs along the way. The Karoo

also happens to be the kind of area of low latitudes where there could be great

swings in precipitation and where landscapes might be far from any biological

and geomorphological equilibrium. The author's view is that we should be

concerned with change and the management of change.

Ref ID : 2308

421. Beinart, W. African history, environmental history and race relations.

Oxford staff & students. 1999.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Notes : This is an inaugural lecture, which concludes with a fable about a

jackal and hyena. The author states that he finds this fable instructive and,

like history, it can be read in a number of ways. It is an accurate observation

of the susceptibility of hyenas to traps; for this reason they were wiped out as

predators in the 19th century while jackals survived. He would like to think

that it is an instruction manual for stock theft, that age-old barometer of race

relations in South Africa. It is probably a story about greed; and one of the

many in which the jackal outsmarts the hyena. And it is also a story

illustrating the interaction of different traditions and experiences. Once of

the most fertile and inspiring areas of research for the author lies in

examining the innovation and renewal which comes from such hybrid sources. The

motor for his academic writing has certainly been a faltering attempt to

traverse and translate between a range of cultures. Moreover, he likes the way

that jackals in fable and fact help us to think about approaches to

environmental history. For that reason, we should welcome them into the fold.

He suggests that we also emulate their adaptibility, and cautions that it is

unwise to go on for too long.

Ref ID : 1168

422. Beinart, W. and Coates, P. Environment and history: the taming of nature in

the USA and South Africa, London:Routledge, 1995.pp. 1-120.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Ref ID : 1143

423. Bekker, J.C. The changing face of South African land tenure. SAIPA

26(1):15-34, 1991.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : LAND TENURE; LAND REFORM; POLICY; TRANSKEI; BOPHUTHATSWANA; VENDA;

CISKEI

Notes : This article is a summary of the different land tenure systems prevalent

in SA, and it is a discussion of such systems with relevance to the Government's

White Paper regarding land reform. The emphasis will fall on laws which

intended to facilitate area discrimination. The government is presently

considering rescinding such laws. The detail of the laws are therefore not

dealt with. This article is merely intended to place the debate concerning land

rights in some perspective. Other aspects regarding land issues to be dealt

with include: communal land; rights to partitioning; and perspectives put

forward by the ANC, the governments of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and

Ciskei. The clauses which follow from recommendations provided in the White

Paper are dealt with briefly, but not in any detail.

Ref ID : 2556

424. Belete, A., Igodan, C., M'marete, C.K., and Van Averbeke, W. Analysis of

rural household consumption expenditure in South Africa: the case of food plot

holder in Tyefu Irrigation Scheme in the Eastern Cape province. Agrekon , 1999.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : IRRIGATION; EASTERN CAPE; MODELS; CISKEI; RURAL DEVELOPMENT;

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC ASPECTS

Notes : The purpose of the study was to investigate and analyse food plot

holders' expenditure behaviour and patterns at the Tyefu Irrigation Scheme.

Secondary data was used. Access to the field data collected by the irrigation

research group at the Faculty of Agriculture and ARDRI (1998) of Fort Hare for a

study entitled: "An investigation into food plot production on irrigation

schemes in the central region of the Eastern Cape Province" permitted an anlysis

of individual food plot holder expenditure records. Data was extracted from the

questionnaire of 156 sampled respondents. It was analysed using rural and

household consumption expediture models. The study revealed that the sampled

food plot holders have a marginal propensity to consume of 0.349, as well as an

average propensity to consume 0.652. Family characteristics such as age

distribution and family size vary in their ability to explain expenditure

patterns depending upon types of commodity. The relatively high inelasticity of

food, clothing, health and education with respect to the 2 family

characteristics (age and family size) is very strange and contrary to

expectation. Poor farm households like the ones at Tyefu would be expected to

spend the greater portion of their income on basics such as food, clothing,

health and education. It was suggested that future areas of research should

include farm asset effects on household expenditure behaviour and the impact of

inflation on rural household consumption behaviour. This article is available

at the main library in the University of Fort Hare. See also ID ref. no. 2339.

Ref ID : 2555

425. Belete, A., Kadzere, C.T., and Nyamapfene, K. The potential for commercial

milk goat production in the arid Eastern Cape regions: economic analysis of the

performance indicators. Agrekon , 1999.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : EASTERN CAPE; ECONOMIC ASPECTS

Notes : The purpose of the study was to consider the financial and economic

viability and technical feasibility of commercial production of dairy goats, and

of the establishment of a milk processing plant in the Eastern Cape. Towards

the end of 1995 and the beginning of 1996 an exploratory survey was conducted in

the semi-arid part of the Eastern Cape province. Data from this exploratory

survey was used for the analysis. Three types of analytical techniques, i.e. net

present worth (NPW), internal rate of return (IRR) and benefit cost (B/c) ratio,

were used to analyse the data. The study found that commercial production of

dairy goats together with a milk processing plant in the said region are

profitable from both a private and social point of view. With a discount rate

of 15%, the NPW, B/c ratio and IRR respectively were found to be R4.3 million,

1.44 and 54%. Sensitivity analyses to changes in the benefits and costs of

inputs were conducted. The project was found to be viable when benefits were

reduced by 25%. The project is still viable when the cost of inputs is inflated

by 25%. In both cases, the B/c ratio is greater than one and IRR is greater

than the market rate of interest. However, the combined effect, i.e. reducing

benefit by 25% and inflating costs by 25%, would result in negative NPW. This

article is available at the University of Fort Hare main library. See also ID

ref. no. 2339.

Ref ID : 1164

426. Bembridge, T.J. A systems approach study of agricultural development

problems in Transkei (Bibliography). 198.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : TRANSKEI; EASTERN CAPE; COMMUNAL AREA; AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT;

FARMING SYSTEMS; AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION; BIBLIOGRAPHY

Notes : In addition to an extensive bibliography the following appendices are

included: a questionnaire to heads of rural households; questionnaire to

farmers' wives; letter to extension staff re: survey; postal questionnaire to

extention workers; interview questionnaire to extension workers; questionnaire

to headmen and tribal authorities; questionnaire to members of co-operative

committees, farmers' associations, Zenzele, church organisations etc.;

questionnaire to traders and businessmen; and questionnaire to school

principals.

Ref ID : 128

427. Bembridge, T.J. Conclusions from a systems approach study of agricultural

development in Transkei.Anonymous Ciskei:University of Fort Hare. :i-52, 1982.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : TRANSKEI; EASTERN CAPE; COMMUNAL AREA; AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT;

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION; MODELS; POPULATION; CULTIVATION; BETTERMENT PLANNING;

LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION; IRRIGATION; FARMING SYSTEMS; POLICY; RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Notes : The use of a systems approach as a means of describing, quantifying and

evaluating the physical resources and environment, agricultural production, the

human potential and the institutional framework of the agricultural economy of

Transkei, has been shown in this study to be a useful model for a holistic

approach. The problems investigated in this study are essentially the various

factors in the agricultural development system which affect low levels of

agricultural production and development of rural communities. The study

objectives were to investigate the various groups of factors which determine and

influence the functioning of the agricultural production system, in order to

diagnose constraints, and to give broad guidelines and recommendations to

increase output and efficiency in agricultural production. The study included

three areas considered to be representative of semi-intensive and semi-extensive

farming in Transkei. Sample surveys of farmers (N = 578), farmers' wives (N =

279), tribal and other local leaders, were supplemented by an analysis of

records, by field observations and from other information sources. The entire

extension service population (N = 269), was included in the postal questionnaire

to extension workers. The sample for the interview questionnaire to extension

workers was stratified on a random sample basis according to grade. Analysis of

the data was by means of computer, using correlation and step-wise regression

techniques. Relative to other parts of Africa, Transkei has a good potential

for intensive and semi-intensive agriculture. Present production levels of

crops and livestock per unit of land is declining and provide for only about one

third of the food requirements of the de facto population. Through continuous

cultivation and depletion of soil fertility, cropping potential has declined,

and most of the grazing areas are in varying stages of degradation. As a result

of betterment planning, infrastructural development, although inadequate is not

unreasonably poor, compared to other National States. The study highlights the

need for further infrastructural development based on rural service centres.

Evidence from the study clearly shows that the human factors which affect

agricultural development are a muti-variant cause effect phenomenon. Most of

the socio-economic and socio-psychological factors discussed in the study are

amenable to change and can be influenced by appropriate rural development

programmes. The role of women as contributors to the rural economy has

generally been underestimated. Findings on various characteristics of

progressive and 'best farmers' indicate they are an important factor in

explaining and understanding variations in farming output. Both the use and

provision of farming information is completely inadequate and a constraint to

improving agricultural production. A general lack of draught power, suitable

implements and farming tools is a major constraint to improved crop production

by farmers. An obvious conclusion was that the number of farmers who have

adopted basic crop and livestock production practices is low, despite the fact

that they have been recommended for many years. This is a major cause of

inordinately low crop yields and efficiency of livestock production. Major

shortcomings in the Qamata irrigation scheme are due to uncontrolled and

inefficient irrigation. Traditionally owned cattle, sheep and goats are one of

the largest resources in the rural areas, but make a relatively small

contribution to the rural economy. Suggestions are put forward to integrate

cattle into the farming system. Crop and livestock owners in Transkei are more

in the nature of consumers of agricultural products rather than producers.

Although there appears to have been a favourable attitudinal impact to

betterment planning and a good deal of infrastructural development has taken

place, there has been little, if any, significant, improvement in agricultural

production in the last 27 years. An operational policy and strategy for the

development of agriculture and rural areas has by and large still to be

formulated. Evidence showed an almost complete lack of institutional supporting

services in terms of credit, marketing, research, and agrarian reform. An in-

depth study of extension services revealed many shortcomings resulting in low

effectiveness and efficiency. Thje study concludes by suggesting a