Rural development encompasses economic and social development in underdeveloped areas and also in developed areas. In the South African context, the former refers to areas where, due to the legacy of apartheid, the overwhelming majority of poor households involved in agriculture live. The latter refers to the high rate of failure of land reform initiatives in developed – or commercial agricultural – areas and the low realisation of benefits for poor households. Central to the rural development pillar are land reform; agriculture and agro-processing, food security, environmental preservation; poverty; and unemployment. Building on TIPS’s traditional areas of strength in trade and industrial policy, a strategic area of policy focus will be around agriculture and agro-processing, and the potential role this plays in advancing rural development. This includes assessing opportunities around regional agricultural value chains, integrating with the work of the sustainable growth development programme around issues such as climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as how these may also provide alternative employment generation strategies, which also overlaps with the inequality and economic marginalisation programme. Assessing issues such as resource scarcity, for example, water and land, is also important.
Useful Publications
Land Reform
Evaluating land reform's contribution to South Africa's pro-poor growth pattern
Capital and market access constraints in land reform projects; Three case studies from Mpumalanga
Agriculture and Agro-processing
SMEs in South Africa’s food processing complex
Food Security
Internationalising higher education in Southern Africa with South Africa as the major exporter
Food Security, agricultural technology and policy - The case of maize in Sub-Saharan Africa
SADRN Policy Brief 2: The impact of biofuels on food prices in the Southern African Customs Union
Environmental Preservation
Towards a workable rural development strategy
Unemployment
Towards a right to work: The rationale for an employment guarantee in South Africa
Agricultural employment crisis in South Africa
