Changing livelihoods and land reform: Evidence from the Northern Cape province of South Africa

This paper examines the changing livelihoods of eight beneficiary groups situated in the Northern Cape province of South Africa who have accessed land through the government's land reform program. It assesses how successfully households with different levels of wealth have integrated agriculture into their livelihoods as well as exploring what other factors have changed livelihoods. The research shows that the low levels of technical support and the high levels of risk associated with agriculture in the province limit the ability of land reform to act as an effective poverty reduction policy and that without considerable restructuring the program is unlikely to meet its objectives. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.