Neels Blom
17 November 2008
Johannesburg — IT COMES as no surprise that two-thirds of small-scale farmers in one of SA's poorest rural areas are not making any adjustments to their farming practices in the face of climate change.
The results of a survey among rural households in the Limpopo valley found that although these households held a perception of long-term changes in rainfall, climate change as a possible cause did not feature on their list of concerns.
Far more important and immediate was a lack of access to credit, followed by a lack of water, information and market access, and insecure property rights.
The study was led by Claudia Ringler, a research fellow at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, and surveyed about 800 Limpopo households. A parallel study among 1000 Ethiopian households led to similar results.
The study found farmers were more likely to adapt to climate change if they had access to credit and agricultural extension services and that the farmers who did adapt irrigated more, harvested water, planted different crops, changed planting dates and practised soil conservation.
The findings broadly confirm the government's policy direction on rural economic development which, though not specifically concerned with climate change, is focused on poverty alleviation and combating hunger. However, the institute's research and the government share the premise that rural poverty alleviation is best done by developing smallholder farming.
Where private sector credit is not extended to emerging farmers - as is the case in most instances of land- reform beneficiaries starting up as farmers - the agriculture and land affairs department has undertaken to provide financial support.
So far, delivery of support for emerging farmers has been painfully slow and inadequate.
For extension services, the transfer of skills, and information of access to markets, the department relies on partnerships with private sector entities, though reports show these partnerships are also not delivering the expected value.
What neither the study nor the government seems to be prepared to contemplate is that the premise for poverty alleviation in rural areas may be false.
The World Bank's World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography, released last week, recommends that while investing in agriculture remains important, Africa must only sparingly use incentives intended to attract industry to lagging areas because this approach has not proven effective in other parts of the world.
That means, to encourage prosperity, governments should facilitate the geographic concentration of production, rather than fight it, though they should at the same time institute policies that meet basic needs - schools, security, streets, and sanitation - more universally.
The report notes that sub- Saharan Africa, of which the Limpopo valley is a typical example of climate and geography, faced the triple challenges of low density and scattered populations, long distances between economic centres and deep divisions in cultural terms.
"In Sub-Saharan Africa, we can reduce the disadvantages of our poor economic geography through better urbanisation, more domestic specialisation, and more regional integration," says Shanta Devarajan, chief economist of the World Bank's Africa region.
"Regional co-operation, labour mobility, investments in trade, communication and transport infrastructure, and peace and stability need to remain high on our agenda, even as countries work to contain the spill-over effects of the global financial crisis," Devarajan says.
It is commonly assumed that economic activities, within a country or region, must be spread geographically to benefit the poorest and most vulnerable. However, the report emphasises that trying to spread out economic activity can hinder growth and is not effective in fighting poverty. For rapid, shared growth, governments must promote economic integration which "is about the mobility of people, products, and ideas".
The report recommends that in hinterland districts (such as the Limpopo valley) investment should be in people -- education, health and other social infrastructure -- rather than in places.
"Contrary to what many believe, if urbanisation is done right, it can help development more in Africa than anywhere else," says Indermit Gill, the director of the report. "Living standards are much higher in Africa's cities than in rural areas, and so if this process is managed better, there could be great gains in productivity and poverty reduction."
Besides, as Ringler comments, efforts now under way to support smallholder farming in the Limpopo valley would be completely negated by the effects of climate change by 2030. While the two reports do not directly contradict each other, their differences show that investments in rural smallholder farmers are unlikely to deliver the degree of poverty alleviation the government's policies have envisaged.
At the very least, a reconsideration of policy direction is indicated.
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