Rural Development and Land Reform Deputy Minister Candith Mashego-Dlamini has paid tribute to rural women’s efforts in increasing food security, but warned that more was needed to improve their lives. In an address to mark International Day of Rural Women, 15 October 2015 in Port Shepstone, Mashego-Dlamini said rural women needed to have secure long-term access or ownership to land, if they were to be at the forefront of eradicating rural poverty.
Deputy Minister, Mashego-Dlamini said women in rural areas must form cooperatives so that they can collectively seize opportunities offered by government. She said an Agri-park would be established in the Ugu district and would provide access to markets for local subsistence farmers and small scale farmers.
The day's activities kicked off with the Deputy Minister visiting various projects led by women in the Ugu district on the Kwazulu Natal South Coast. The projects included a visit to a farm acquired by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and allocated to 10 women who produce macadamia nuts, tomatoes and green peppers. The DM commended the women and said that strength in numbers would help combat the challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality. “Women must join hands and identify what is it that they can produce so that when they approach the government for help, it is easier to be provided with resources”, she added.
“As the world is celebrating the International Day of Rural Women, we recognise the huge role women play in enhancing agriculture and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty. The department of rural development and land reform has played a key role in providing resources to support women’s empowerment and capacity building in agriculture across the country”, said Mashego-Dlamini.
“Rural women face a number of challenges, they are affected disproportionately by poverty, unemployment and disease,” she continued. The International Day of Rural Women was established by the United Nations in 2007 and recognises the role rural women play in rural development through fighting poverty by enhancing food security.
It is commonly accepted that rural women are key agents for achieving the transformational economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development. The world over, rural women play a role in food security and creating sustainable rural areas yet they do not have sufficient power to secure land in many instances or vital resources such as credit, inputs costs of farming, extension services, training and education.
But Mashego-Dlamini says unless women have full access to land, obstacles to fighting rural poverty and underdevelopment will stagnate.
Throughout the world, gender inequality in land and other productive resources is intrinsically related to women’s poverty and exclusion. Women’s rights to access, use, control, and ownership of land and other productive resources are essential to reverse this. Sustainable solutions are not imposed from the outside. It is of utmost importance that rural women’s voices are heard in discussion, debates and policymaking about their lives.
Every day rural women face complex obstacles blocking their rights to land. These include discriminatory laws and practices governing inheritance and marital property; gender-biased land reform that privileges men over women; unequal access to land markets; and discriminatory attitudes and beliefs. Such discrimination greatly decreases rural women’s potential as agricultural producers, limiting their contributions to food security, frustrating their sustainable land management efforts, and undermining their well-being and that of their families.
Rural women play a critical role in the rural economies for both developed and developing countries. “In most parts of rural South Africa, they participate in crop production and livestock care, provide food, water and fuel for their families, and engage in off-farm activities to diversify their families’ livelihoods,” said Mashego-Dlamini.
“Maximum benefits can be achieved when farmers have secure rights to land and know they will have long-term ownership of the land, and are able to keep the profits. The International Day of Rural Women is an opportunity to focus global attention on the contributions and concerns of rural women, whose situations and voices are so often unheard, concluded the Deputy Minister.”
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