AGRICULTURE NEWS - Of course, the support aspect only really became part of the process after the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform realised that most land reform projects that had been implemented since 1994 had not been successful, as evidenced by the results of an evaluation study conducted in 2009.

Previously productive farmland was lying fallow, and many beneficiaries were auctioning off or selling their land due to the collapse of the farming businesses they had inherited along with the land.

It became clear that land reform was heading for disaster, and in an attempt to stop this worrying trend, the department introduced the recapitalisation programme.

This programme, as the name suggests, aimed to restore those farms that had fallen into disrepair after being transferred to beneficiaries.

Right from the start, recapitalisation was a muddled mess, because it put a department that had no expertise or capacity to assist in the set-up and running of a successful farm in charge of doing exactly that.

Read the full article here on the Caxton publication, Farmer's Weekly.