A gradual decline in the number of South African households that grow crops or keep livestock is quietly eroding a low-cost buffer against hunger, according to an analysis of the General Household Survey (2008-2024) and the 2011 and 2022 censuses published by FarmingPortal.
Census data show 19.9% of households (2,879,590) farmed in 2011 against 13.8% (2,463,429) in 2022. Household survey estimates peaked at about 20% to 23% in the early 2010s and now sit at about 15% to 17%. The steepest falls were in KwaZulu-Natal (28.2% to 19.2%), the Eastern Cape (35.4% to 26.2%), Limpopo (33.0% to 28.7%), Mpumalanga (24.5% to 18.0%) and the Free State (24.4% to 16.1%). In 2024 participation was highest in Limpopo at 36.4% and lowest in the Western Cape at 3.1%.
About 70% to 75% of farming households do so to put food on the table rather than to earn income, and 60% of households owning cattle had fewer than 10 animals in 2022. A backyard garden, a few chickens or a small herd cushions households against food-price shocks, the authors write; whether its loss matters depends on whether jobs, grants and markets replace it. In 2021, 39.4% of rural households farmed against 7.4% of urban ones, so urbanisation explains part of the decline.
Women headed 53.9% of farming households in 2022, up from 47.9% in 2011, as men move into other work and young people leave for towns, raising concern about an ageing farming population. The authors call for policy that supports existing household production rather than focusing only on turning smallholders into commercial farmers.
Photo: Ryanj93 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: FarmingPortal
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