- Title
- Cropland abandonment in South African smallholder communal lands: Land cover change (1950–2010) and farmer perceptions of contributing factors
- Creator
- Blair, Dale, Shackleton, Charlie M, Mograbi, Penelope J
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/180297
- Identifier
- vital:43351
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/land7040121"
- Description
- Despite agricultural land abandonment threatening the food security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, it is pervasive globally and in developing countries. Yet land abandonment is an understudied aspect of land use change in social–ecological systems. Here we provide more information on this phenomenon by exploring cropland abandonment during 1950–2010 in four former South African ‘homelands’—part of the ‘Apartheid’ era racially-based land allocation programs—characterized by rural, smallholder farmers. Cropland abandonment 1950–2010 was widespread in all surveyed sites (KwaZulu: 0.08% year−1, Transkei: 0.13% year−1, Lebowa: 0.23% year−1, Venda: 0.28% year−1), with rates peaking between 1970 and 1990, with concomitant increases (up to 0.16% year−1) of woody vegetation cover at the expense of grassland cover. Active and past farmers attributed cropland abandonment to a lack of draught power, rainfall variability and droughts, and a more modernized youth disinclined to living a marginal agrarian lifestyle. We discuss the potential social and ecological implications of abandoned croplands at the local and regional scales, as the deagrarianization trend is unlikely to abate considering the failure of current South African national agricultural incentives.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (20 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- MDPI
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Land, Blair, D., Shackleton, C.M. and Mograbi, P.J., 2018. Cropland abandonment in South African smallholder communal lands: Land cover change (1950–2010) and farmer perceptions of contributing factors. Land, 7(4), p.121, Land volume 7 number 4 p. 121 2018 2073-445X
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the MDPI Open Access Statement (https://www.int-res.com/journals/terms-of-use/)
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods
RU Department of Environmental Science
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 15. Life On Land
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | Cropland abandonment in South African smallholder communal lands Land cover change 1950–2010 and farmer perceptions of contributing factors.pdf | 897 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |