Madame Programme Director, honourable Chotelo
Chairperson of the portfolio committee on agriculture
District Mayor of John Taolo Gaetsewe, Councillor Gaobusiwe
Mayor of the host local municipality, Councillor Makoke
Leaders of local government in the district
Traditional leaders le dikgosi
Head of department and senior managers
Friends and comrades
We are here today to celebrate the achievements of women farmers who have been able to attain, against all odds, their dreams and who have been able to se the fruits of their toil bearing.
We are celebrating the provincial farmer of the year in the month of August which in South Africa is Women’s Month. This month tends to celebrate and acknowledge the contributions that have been made by women like Lilian Ngoyi, Dora Tamana, Frances Baard, Ray Alexander, Florence Mkhize and all other great women of our struggle for freedom.
We need to reflect on the role that was played by women in our struggle for freedom and the role they continue to play in our quest for creating a better life for all our people. Manana Ngoyi never allowed structural oppression to put her down as she was guided by a clear political understanding of what had to be done at that political conjuncture. When she was issued with her first banning order in 1961 she had already played a critical role in setting in motion a process that would see the revolution in South Africa gain momentum.
The apartheid regime then tried to break her resolve, moral, political conviction and at some points even tried to corrupt her. But because she had a political principal which she was committed to, she remained resolute. She was a symbol of resistance, an aspiration to young revolutionaries, men and women, a mother and a comrade. Before she died, she had confidence in the success of the South African struggle by declaring: “If I die, I’ll die a happy because I have already seen the rays of our new South Africa”. This was in the 70s before Ma’am Ngoyi passed on. We are making these points to illustrate that indeed women have for a long time been pillars of our struggle and visionaries who could see the evolution of our struggle.
We also speak of women like Ray Alexander Simons who came to South Africa on 6 November 1929 and joined the Communist Party of South Africa on 11 November 1929, five days after arriving in South Africa. This was because she was an internationalist who could link her own struggles in her native country Latvia, to those of the working class and the poor in other parts of the world. She was famous for her work in the Food and Canning Workers' Union (FCWU) and she was persecuted by the apartheid regime for her work in the trade union movement She understood her work in the trade union as not being workaholic but with a clear progressive ideological backing.
We are making all of these examples of remarkable women in order to emphasise the point that women have always been and will always be an integral part of South African society. AS we celebrate and honour those women who continue a significant contribution to agriculture, it is important that we emphasise the need to ensure that whilst we encourage women to venture into commercial agriculture, we must ensure that our people do not go hungry as a result of our motivation for profits. Women are best placed in understanding this challenge because they have historically been the ones who place society’s interests before their own.
The old Setswana adage that says: “mma ngwana o tshwara thipa ka fa bogaleng”, is informed by the fact that women and our mothers would always be the first ones to take care of us before we can even realise it. Today once more we are going to celebrate and reward remarkable people who continue to make a significant contribution to one of our key economic sectors in the province and our country, agriculture.
We are celebrating 10 years of the female farmer competition and it would also be important to reflect on the success that has been made with regards to our ward initiative for example, Women in Agriculture and Rural Development. The introduction of this programme in 2007 further gave impetus to the role of women in agriculture as agents for change through agrarian reform.
Since the launch of the awards in 1999 our province ahs done quite well in such a way that we have been able to produce two winners in the household production category in 2003, two in 2005, one for the national markets category and another being the overall winner of the 2005 awards. In 2008 we were able to get a winner in the export market category. These achievements signify the strides that women have in agriculture and we should spare no effort to further encourage them.
The role of women in agriculture in significant in as far as ensuring food security is concerned. Because in most cases they are not motivated by profits first, but rather by the need to ensure sustainable livelihood for their families; it is for this reason that this year a fifth category has been added to separate backyard and communal gardens producing food for household consumption. This initiative should ensure that we reverse the trend of our country being a net exporter of food.
This kind of commitment should be applauded. These awards there fore seek to recognise the efforts of women in agriculture and the role they play and to also develop their enterprises while ensuring that they are viable and sustainable through our support. We must acknowledge that the participation of women is not at a level which we can be proud of and we should double our efforts if we are to make a meaningful impact in as far as women in agriculture are concerned. We are pleased though with the participation levels of our women in the food security arena. Their participation was as follows:
837 women farmers benefited through our Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) with mainly fencing, livestock water supply, seeds, fertilisers and garden implements. 17 percent of our CASP budget was used for projects in which women are the majority and they provide management.
480 women were trained on various aspects of production, marketing, and financial management. An additional 569 participated in other agricultural related capacity building programmes.
525 women are participating in the food security projects and backyard food production.
114 women who belong to the Women in Agriculture and Rural Development programme participated in capacity building programmes which broadened their networks and exposed them to various learnerships and management experiences.
We must also mention that R17,836 million of our CASP budget of R29 million in the 2008/09 financial year went to women projects. These are but some of the initiatives that have been taken by the department to ensure that we promote participation of women in agriculture.
To us, the above is not enough and we must make serious inroads, coupled with our rural development emphasis, to ensure that more women participate in agriculture. More emphasis would be placed on rural women as one of our key and form part of our rural motive forces for change.
There are more women who participate in this competition annually and this should inform us in terms of where we should place for our support programmes. We should also increase the number of women projects that are funded and supported if we are to encourage and increase the participation of women in agriculture.
Our struggle for freedom is informed, inter alia, by our struggle for gender equality and economic emancipation. It is for his reason that we must ensure that the triple oppression suffered by women, in particular African women, in terms of race, class, and gender is eradicated from all facets of our society. To those who will emerge today as winners, we are saying congratulations. To those who will not emerge as winners, we say to you, you mere participation in this competition tells us that you are a winner and we will not spare any effort to continue supporting you.
We would also like to thank the national Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and TOTAL South Africa for sponsoring this event.
In conclusion, let us thank the local government leadership in this district for having hosted us and we say to you, re lebogile go menagane.
Thank you very much
Malibongwe igama la makhosikazi
Ke a leboga
Source: Department of Agriculture, Northern Cape Provincial Government
