Provinces and agricultural development: challenge or opportunity?

The purpose of this paper is to explore the state and agriculture at the subnational sphere; an area currently receiving little attention in the South African agricultural economics fraternity. It is argued that South Africa's Constitution bestows certain decision-making and legislative powers on its nine provinces and that public goods and redistributive policy options are available to the agricultural sector. As about two-thirds of South African agricultural expenditure (83% if conditional grants are included) takes place at provincial level, it was shown that provincial dynamics are relevant. While the characteristics of tribal populations in provinces are found to be important, a poor alignment between provincial agricultural expenditure and certain elements of consequence (employment, value addition, etc.) can be shown. The paper also deconstructs the commonly used terms “state” and “agriculture” at a provincial level and dwell on the concept of the rational civil servant. In the case of the...