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28Second, the reasons to which under-use of land and non-operational projects areattributed are focused on failures of the project members themselves (conflict, lack ofskills, poor management, etc) and the absence or inadequate support from governmentinstitutions, most notably the Department of Agriculture (lack of aftercare, training,extension advice, etc). However, the studies do not question the business plansthemselves, but take as given that adherence to business plans is the optimal outcomeeven though, as shown in the North West study, there may in fact be a negativecorrelation between the two.A further issue that merits attention is the wider economic context in which productiontake place (or not). The issue of under-utilisation of redistributed land has been framed –in the public imagination and in the few review reports that have been written –predominantly as a problem of production. This has fuelled (sometimes racially)caricatured notions of the limitations of poor black people as custodians of the land (duToit 2004). However, concerns about under-use of redistributed land are widely sharedacross the political spectrum. Among official reviews, the dominant reason put forwardfor the failure to produce is the lack of skills, for both cultivation and for management,thus laying the blame squarely on beneficiaries themselves, rather than on two otherpossible causes: the inappropriateness of planned land uses, and a hostile policy andeconomic environment (Andrew et al 2003).Policy Options for Land and Agrarian ReformProgramme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape