The Next Great Trek? South African Commercial Farmers Move North

August 2011
Ruth Hall (PLAAS Working Paper 19)

Analyses the shifting role of South African farmers, agribusiness and capital elsewhere in Southern Africa and the rest of the continent. Explores recent expansion trends, investigates the interests and agendas shaping such deals, and the legitimating ideologies and discourses employed in favour of them. Now it is being more centrally organised and coordinated than in the past, is more frequently taking the form of large concessions for newly formed consortia and agribusinesses, and is increasingly reliant on external financing through transnational partnerships. Documents and analyses their impacts and implications for land rights, livelihoods and the changing shape of agriculture. Addresses the degree to which South Africa is no longer merely exporting its farmers, but also its value chains, to the rest of the continent and what this means for trajectories of agrarian change.