Every year Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA) presents the Tomlinson Commemorative Lecture. The lecture is held in the honour of Prof FR Tomlinson, the first president of AEASA. The 26^th Tomlinson Lecture will be hosted in the province of KwaZulu Natal, in Pietermaritzburg and will be presented by Prof Michael Lyne.

Theme: "Two decades of land reform in South Africa: Insights from an Agricultural Economics perspective".

Date: Thursday 5 June 2014

Arrival Time: 18:30 for 19:00

Venue:  Pietermaritzburg at the Tsogo Sun Golden Horse Hotel (White Horse Function Room).

Presenter: Prof Michael (Mike) Lyne

RSVP: by Friday 16^th of May to Christine Cuenod on [email protected] or 27 (0)33 260 6557

About the theme:

Two decades of land reform in South Africa: Insights from an agricultural economics perspective

This presentation reviews the land reforms anticipated in the mid-1990s when the government formalised its land policy. It reflects on land grants as the key instrument used by government to effect land redistribution and restitution, and links this instrument to poor outcomes for land and people. Attention then turns to the consequences of this failure. The message to Agricultural Economists is to discount the rhetoric and to focus on ‘getting institutions right’ at both a policy and practical level.

About the Presenter:

Resume: Michael Charles Lyne

Michael Lyne studied at the University of Natal where he completed BScAgric (1979), MScAgric (1982) and PhD (1990) degrees majoring in Agricultural Economics. He joined the Department of Agricultural Economics as a lecturer in 1982, and was promoted to full professor in 1998. In 2007 he was appointed Associate Professor of International Rural Development at Lincoln University in New Zealand, and Honorary Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). At Lincoln, he chairs the Faculty Research Committee, serves on the Faculty Management Team and represents the University on New Zealand’s Development Studies Network.

Dr Lyne has published 96 articles in peer-reviewed journals, proceedings and books. Fourteen of these publications won prizes, the most recent awarded in 2013 by the New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. His supervisions include 24 Masters and 10 Doctoral students.

He earned AEASA’s prize for Best Masters Thesis in 1982 and the Economic Society of South Africa's Founder's Medal for Best Doctoral Thesis in 1991. In 1992, he was awarded the inaugural British Petroleum Research Scholarship in Rural Development to conduct research in the USA and New Zealand. In 1995, he was selected as one of ten finalists for the Four Outstanding Young South Africans Award, and in 2005 he joined an international team at the Rockefeller Foundation’s study centre in Bellagio to produce a textbook dealing with applications of New Institutional Economics in African agriculture.

Michael was a founding director of LIMA Rural Development Foundation and maintains a close working relationship with this vibrant NGO. He counts international aid agencies, government departments, commercial banks and consulting firms amongst his clients. His research designed and launched South Africa’s Land Reform Credit Facility and helped to establish equity-share schemes for land reform beneficiaries in KwaZulu-Natal and for farm workers in Kyrgyzstan.

He and Christine have two daughters, both studying at universities in New Zealand. Other treasures include eight Comrades Marathon medals and a well-travelled mountain bike.

For a full resume of Prof Lyne, go to http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/staff-profile?staffId=Michael.Lyne. For details on the Tomlinson Lecture go to rules, go to http://www.aeasa.org.za/.