Land ownership and usage for agriculture: Empirical evidence from South African Living Conditions Survey

Abstract

Land is an indispensable resource in agricultural production. In South Africa, land’s economic, political and cultural worth often surpass its production value. Both the proponents and opponents of the ongoing debate on land expropriation without compensation in South Africa have expressed concerns on its implications for land usage for food and agricultural production by land reform beneficiaries. The aim of this study is to determine household land ownership and usage for agricultural production in South Africa. The study adopted a nationally representative secondary data collected by Statistics South Africa. Descriptive statistics and bivariate probit regression model were implemented to analyze drivers of land ownership and usage for agricultural production. The descriptive statistics results showing the distribution of land ownership and usage across the country indicate the highest land ownership in Eastern Cape (9.66%), KwaZulu Natal (5.29%), Limpopo (4.51%) and land usage in Eastern Cape (8.61%), KwaZulu Natal (4.80%), Limpopo (3.89%). The bivariate probit model shows that age of the household, household participation in home garden, income and engagement in own production explains land ownership and utilization among other variables. It was observed that older household heads are more likely to own land, whereas they are less likely to use it. Counterintuitively, wealthier household has lesser probability to own land. Based on these findings, it was recommended that South Africa land reform policy should be reviewed to address pervasive land ownership inequality in the country by targeting young South Africans with regular income, practicing home garden and engaging in own production.