This article examines whether rural households, both land reform
beneficiary and aspirant, with access to land, use the land they have or
not. Micro-data on crop and livestock production from land reform
beneficiary and aspirant households in the Eastern Cape (South Africa)
are analyzed to establish if households that have access to land actually
use the land they have. Analysis of crop and livestock production data
suggests that although land may not be used to full capacity in many of
the households, the majority of them are using the land they have to
produce different crops and livestock products for home consumption
and sale. This is contrary to media reports that there is no production
taking place on the overwhelming majority of land reform projects and
in communal areas of former homelands. It is also apparent from the
data presented below that the land reform beneficiary households on
an average produce more crops and livestock than the non-beneficiary
households.