Assessing the impacts of government agricultural projects on rural economic development in Ugu District Municipality

• Main Author: Sinethemba, Mbali
• Other Authors: Ntombela, N.H.
• Format: Others
• Published: University of Zululand 2016
• Subjects: rural economic development > agricultural projects > policies > contribution > rural areas
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10530/1438

A thesis submitted to the Faculty Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Community Work in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2014 === Rural economic development is a priority for every government in the world, whether the country is developed, developing or Third World. In South Africa, 45.8% of the population lives in rural areas and are regarded as lower social class. Here unemployment is high and the educational level is low. As a result people rely heavily on government grants for their household income. Many factors contribute to this dependency, mostly the legacy of apartheid policies. The effect of the apartheid ideology tended to put economic development beyond the reach of black people through stripping them of resources and blocking advancement in their knowledge and capacities. Hence, the developmental efforts in the new democratic era has a focus on economic empowerment of women and people with disabilities, improvement of health standards in rural areas, bettering education using agriculture as the tool to achieve the proposed development. Many policies that are based on agriculture have been implemented to better people’s situation in South Africa. They include Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR), Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP), Integrated Development Plans (IDP) and Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy (ISRDS), to mention but a few. The study aimed at assessing the impacts of government agricultural projects in rural economic development while identifying proper strategies for effective agricultural project implementation in the rural areas. The results revealed that there has been creation of additional employment opportunities in agriculture which have also contributed to improvement of household food security, infrastructural development, informal and formal education. Measures promoting smallholder agricultural growth can be an effective strategy to reduce rural poverty, income inequality and can contribute significantly to poverty alleviation by raising rural incomes through agricultural productivity. Investing in agricultural development benefits the communities through better roads, storage, transport and other marketing infrastructures which generate farm and non-farm employment thus benefiting not only the project participants but also the community as a whole. However, the study concludes that local regional agricultural policies are needed for land access and use by women and youth especially, in order to enhance land market development and agriculture investment. These policies should include bettering financial credits available for project participants through simplifying the application processes and low interest payments.