RE-THINKING AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA: BLACK COMMERCIAL FARMERS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES

This article examines which factors contributed to farmers using land more productively in the past. The article argues that the process behind productivity improvements is strongly associated with, although not confined to, a transition to commercial farming. By focusing on Black farmers who were successful in making this transition, the paper hopes to provide a clear, historically-rooted perspective on the prospects for eradicating the on-going racial divisions within the South African farming sector. The paper starts by defining the concept commercial farming' and then outlines the challenges that make this type of economic orientation difficult to adopt, as well as pointing to the factors that make some farmers more capable of becoming commercial than others. By reviewing what we know about the ways in which Black farmers responded to economic opportunities - as well as to political and social obstacles - the article provides fresh insight into the factors behind these successes and concludes by assessing the implications of this approach for land reform policy in South Africa.