The rise of large scale formal smallholder irrigation schemes in Swaziland: an appropriate solution for rural livelihoods and agricultural production
Year: 2007
Type: book
Abstract: This paper argues that the dominance of estate sugarcane has caused, and is continuing to provide, an important 'political economy' to the development of smallholder irrigation in Swaziland; the lack of traditional, non-sugar smallholder irrigation in Swaziland is partly a product of the orientation of the lowveld towards irrigated sugar production.This relationship forms via a number of ways, explored in this paper.These factors, support services, and the agro-industrial farming environment combined with the high risks of successful development of small-scale irrigation in the middleveld, provide a momentum in capability that may considerably sustain new large-scale smallholder projects in the lowveld, which arguably may be the most sensible route for agriculture-related development.The key challenge is to ensure this confluence of endowments creates a wider spread of benefits than is currently being enjoyed by small farmers in Swaziland and at the same time, decisionmakers also recognise that expanding formal large-scale smallholder is not without risks.
Author: Bruce Lankford
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W983066848