Management, tenure issues threaten Limpopo smallholder irrigation schemes

Abstract

Smallholder irrigation L erato* is part of the 200 000 farmers and their families that make a living off the country’s 300 or so smallholder irrigation schemes. Her family has worked the land at Dzindi Irrigation Scheme, in Limpopo’s Vhembe district, since 1954, and while she does not own the land she does have permission to occupy and use it, according to the certificate in her possession. So imagine her surprise when arriving at her plot one day to tend her maize, she found instead of plants the foundations of a house. Even more surprising was that the new land ‘owner’ could show a deed of sale allegedly1given to him by the local municipality. Lerato had just been the latest victim of a land grab – a new trend that is threatening the already precarious livelihood of plot holders at Dzindi Irrigation Scheme.

Authors

Categories