An elusive harvest : Working with smallholder farmers in South Africa

The land development unit (LDU) was a small; non-government organization (NGO) engaged from 1992 to 2004 in agricultural and rural development in the Western and Northern Cape provinces.

At its inception, agriculture was the weakest link in the array of support to rural communities in the region - the small, disadvantaged farmers in the Coloured Rural Areas and black vegetable growers in the townships.

The LDU was deliberately established to fill this gap.

The title tells the story of this significant NGO that was active during the critical period when South Africa was transforming itself into a democratic nation.

Starting work in the early 1990s, it pioneered participatory methods, and was virtually the only organization at that time running operational projects with these communities.

A companion online publication traces the LDU's conception and birth, discusses its philosophy and strategy, management, funding and public awareness activities, and analyses why it was so vulnerable and finally faded away. The title breaks new ground in that it is the first detailed account of the work of a small NGO which supported disadvantaged farmers and growers in the arid western part of South Africa.

Many other NGOs have disappeared from the South African scene without leaving a proper record of their work.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a supporter of the LDU from the very beginning, has written the foreword of this 200-page book is published under the auspices of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), School of Government, University of the Western Cape.