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Justice needed for women in agriculture, says Didiza

───   CHRISTAL-LIZE MULLER 12:54 Wed, 02 Sep 2020

Justice needed for women in agriculture, says Didiza | News Article

The economic campaign for justice to women needs to be expressed in the land and agricultural sector.


The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development is looking at addressing the issue to enable women to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with men. This is according to the agriculture minister, Thoko Didiza, who took part in a webinar on Monday about the role of women in agriculture. Didiza said pres. Cyril Ramaphosa has highlighted agriculture as one of the sectors that will be prioritised in order to rebuild the country's economy and that is why the role of women in the sector needs to be improved. Here is Didiza...


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She said Ramaphosa further announced that the government would rapidly release agricultural state land as the government's contribution to deal with the vexing problem of land inequity as a result of colonial and apartheid policies and laws. Last year the Advisory Panel on Land and Agriculture also tabled its report, which was agreed to by the government. In response to all these commitments by Ramaphosa and recommendations by the advisory panel, the department, therefore, has taken action to also address the issues that women producers and entrepreneurs have raised. One of those issues raised was women's access to land, as it seems like the government's allocation policy was not clear for everybody. 

Didiza said a land beneficiary selection policy was developed to guide land allocation and within that policy, 50% allocation for women, 40% for youth, and 6% for people with disabilities, were asserted. This is part of the government's policy injunction in order to continuously allow guidance when dealing with land allocation to make sure women are beneficiaries equally to other people in the sector. 

A producer support model was also introduced to guide the government on how to support women who operated a family or on a subsistence level, a small holder, medium, or mega farmer. A producer support model, agriculture and agribusiness master plan have also been developed, as well as a poultry and sugar plan, and a plan to develop land release. 

These are important milestones in terms of the work that has been done thus far, but women in the sector still face challenges like access to land either for leasing, acquisition, or state land.  Relating prices make it impossible to access while applications take long on the government's lease programme.

She said financial services, which include grants and loans, are also a concern while women appreciate the support that the government is giving through programmes, although these do not take multiyear support that will enable financial viability. There is a lack of a specific support programme, taking into consideration challenges in the sector, such as marketing and trade requirements.


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