Perceived patterns and drivers of deagrarianization: a case study of Ambros and Maramanzhi villages, South Africa

Access to arable land has the potential to address the challenges of poverty, unemployment and household food insecurity in South Africa. Despite these opportunities and limited income sources, particularly in former homelands of the country, smallholder farmers have progressively disengaged from field cultivation. The aim of this study is to examine cultivation trends to understand the patterns and drivers of deagrarianization in Ambros village, Eastern Cape province and Maramanzhi village, Limpopo province, South Africa. A purposive sampling approach was used to select four key informants and four transect walk participants. Meanwhile, simple random sampling was conducted to select 106 household heads. Semi-structured questionnaires consisting of open-ended and close-ended questions were used to collect data for this study. Descriptive statistics were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0, while qualitative data were analyzed with NVivo 12 software. The key findings revealed that 48% of household heads in Ambros and 55% in Maramanzhi villages owned fields. However, a multifaceted process involving livelihood reorientation and spatial realignment away from rural agrarian patterns, identified as deagrarianization disproportionately affects the study sites. This process has been reflected by a decline in field cultivation. Most evidently, Ambros had more fallow fields, compared to Maramanzhi. These deagrarianization processes largely stem from a complex combination of political, socio-economic and ecological drivers, such as colonial and apartheid land dispossession, lack of agricultural inputs and droughts. Among the various socio-economic effects, deagrarianization is a challenge that destabilizes social structures and farming attitudes in rural areas of South Africa. Based on the study findings, we recommend that the government improves the development of infrastructure and agricultural training programs to enhance the revitalization of fallow fields and employment opportunities for rural inhabitants.