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Politicians, planners and development agencies in areas such as Ciskei and Transkei are debating and planning for land tenure reform on the assumption that it holds the key to successful agricultural and rural development. This paper considers various land reform options available to planners working in the rural areas of Ciskei and Transkei, and argues that land tenure reform on its own is unlikely to foster agricultural development. Other constraints such as inadequate access to capital, to infrastructure and to agricultural services must also be overcome if agricultural development is to be achieved. The author makes several suggestions as to how general rural development may be promoted in the interim period while the more significant constraints mentioned above are being confronted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the 1960's government‐financed agricultural betterment schemes were introduced into several rural villages in the Keiskammahoek magisterial district of the Ciskei, ‘a self‐governing homeland in South Africa'’ (Quail, 1980). The first part of this paper traces the planning and implementation of betterment in Cata village. Seen in terms of its own goal of creating a ‘stable rural peasantry’ the betterment scheme has not succeeded. However, the success of a betterment scheme should not be seen only in terms of material and socialbenefits, but also in terms of its ability to persuade the villagers of the desirability and value of betterment as such, to change attitudes. Here the scheme has scored only very limited success. The second part of the paper looks at the villagers‘1 perceptions of the desirability and value of betterment as it was brought to them and considers the differences between their attitudes and those of officialdom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]