ABSTRACT
Rural development strategies intended to improve the incomes available from farming are often viewed as an integral part of an urbanization strategy since it is felt that they will restrain rural-urban migration. This chapter considers whether economic development and urban growth in the homelands can check urban migration from them. It addresses how urban development in the Transkei can best meet the needs of the poor. Some reports say that there is a number of 'abandoned' or 'vacant' white farms in peripheral white farming areas and there are ready opportunities for redistribution. An initial equivocation in respect of these findings would be that while output per hectare might increase with smaller farm size, costs per hectare would increase more than proportionately. The point at which the superior position of small farms ceases to apply occurs when there are a sufficient number of reasonably paid off-farm employment opportunities resulting in less pressure to use labour intensively on the small farm.
