ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1610323
This article is part of the Research TopicFuture Paths for Local and Alternative Food SystemsView all 3 articles
Agrarian transitions in rural Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa: Understanding dynamics and determinants
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Lilongwe, Malawi
- 3Chinhoyi University of Technology, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe
- 4University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
- 5University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany
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In the coming decades, smallholder agriculture in the Global South will experience significant transformations due to environmental challenges, urbanisation and demographic shifts. Although current research offers valuable perspectives on agrarian change, few studies have systematically tracked transitions in smallholder agriculture over time. Understanding long-term dynamics and integrating insights from diverse regions and sub-populations are essential for crafting effective and sustainable rural policies. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative longitudinal data from four time points (2010, 2014, 2019, and 2023) with qualitative insights from 10 villages within the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System site in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Through both quantitative modeling and qualitative analysis, we explore agrarian trajectories, revealing trends, determinants, and transitions among various agrarian strategies. The findings emphasize the significant role of migrant and local off-farm employment in influencing the likelihood and level of subsistence farming, highlighting the dynamic nature of agrarian livelihoods. The impact of demographic factors, such as household size and gender, vary across different agrarian strategies. These insights offer valuable guidance for policy and intervention strategies aimed at enhancing rural livelihoods.
Keywords: Deagrarianizing, Agrarianizing, Subsistence farming, Agrarian transitions, Rural households
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rusere, Mkuhlani, Soropa, Hunter, Twine and Samimi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Farirai Rusere, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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