Survey of small-scale sugarcane growers in South Africa 2011-2015

Dataset and interview transcripts from a survey of small-scale sugarcane growers in Nkomazi, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, undertaken in 2013. The dataset includes 106 variables for 104 growers.

<p>Land reform remains a key element in efforts to redress South Africa’s legacy of historic injustice, but is an arena of intense debate about the impact of farming scale on agricultural productivity and rural incomes.
This research undertook a study of sugar farms in Mpumalanga province, South Africa, where, following land reform, black-owned agriculture operates on both small- and large-scale production units. The research collected and analysed new data using farm surveys and interviews with farm owners and employees, as well as analyzing existing data.

The three-year project used a range of criteria of ‘farm viability’ to assess: the productivity of land, water, labour and capital at different farm scales; the impact of income from different scales of farming on livelihoods and well being among rural communities; and the effects of sugar farming on political and institutional relations within rural communities, particularly with respect to conflict and cohesion over natural resource use. While the main policy lessons from this research will focus on the South African land and agriculture context, the research will also seek to identify lessons for policy on foreign financial investment in farmland in sub-Saharan Africa.</p>

本数据集为2013年在南非姆普马兰加省恩科马齐地区开展的小型甘蔗种植户调查所形成的数据集与访谈转录文本，涵盖104位种植户的106项变量信息。

土地改革始终是纠正南非历史不公正遗留问题的核心举措之一，但围绕农业经营规模对农业生产力与农村收入的影响，该领域始终存在激烈争议。

本研究针对南非姆普马兰加省的甘蔗农场展开调研，该地区在土地改革推进后，黑人所有的农业生产同时覆盖小规模与大规模两种经营单元。研究通过农场问卷调查、访谈农场所有者与雇员的方式收集并分析了全新数据，同时也对现有公开数据进行了整合分析。

这项为期三年的研究项目采用一系列“农场生存能力（farm viability）”评估标准，开展三项核心评估：一是不同经营规模下农场的土地、水资源、劳动力与资本生产力水平；二是不同规模农业经营的收入对农村社区民生与福祉的影响；三是甘蔗种植对农村社区内部政治与制度关系的作用，尤其是围绕自然资源利用产生的冲突与凝聚效应。尽管本研究的核心政策启示将聚焦南非土地与农业领域的现实语境，同时也将尝试为撒哈拉以南非洲地区农地外资投资政策提炼可借鉴的经验。