Crisis and Differentiation among Small-Scale Sugar Cane Growers in Nkomazi, South Africa

Figures & data

Figure 1. Nkomazi Local Municipality (hatched area was Nkomazi district in ex-’homeland’ of KaNgwane). Source: N. Scarle, Cartographic Unit of the School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester.

Table 1. Distribution of sugar cane area and production by types of land-holding

Farm scale	Small-scale grower projects*	Large- and medium-scale commercial growers**	Large-scale production by TSB’s cane operating division***	Total
Area (ha)	6,902	24,192	12,276	43,370
Sugar cane delivered to mill 2013/14 (tonnes)	477,039	2,207,802	1,387,513	4,072,354
Percentage of total harvest	11.7	54.2	34.1	100

^* On ex-Bantustan land administered by traditional authorities.

^** Farms on ‘freehold land’ includes remaining white-owned farms, black-owned farms purchased under ‘willing buyer–willing seller’ land redistribution, and about 1,000 ha of land reform claims purchased by government and farmed by TSB while awaiting final settlement of claims.

^*** Includes 7,600 ha operated as joint ventures, approximately 2,400 under direct lease arrangements, and about 1,700 ha of farms owned by TSB itself.

Source: Canegrowers (South African Cane Growers’ Association), ‘Report of the Board of Director 2013/14’ (2014). Available at http://www.sacanegrowers.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CG-Annual-Report-2014v3.pdf, retrieved on 4 November 2014.

Figure 2. Average net earnings (rand per year) from sugar cane, compared for growers acquiring, and not acquiring, additional land. Source: P. Woodhouse and P. James, ‘A Farm Survey of Small-Scale Sugarcane Growers in Nkomazi’.