Date: 26/03/2007

Source: Northen Cape Provincial Government

Title: Peters: Provincial Conference of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development

Speech by Premier Dipuo Peters at the occasion of the Provincial Conference of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development

Programme Director
Hon MEC Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Hon MEC T Madikane
Hon Speaker of the Sol Plaatje Municipality, Cllr DS Fillis
Representatives of NGOs, CBOs and other Civil Society Formations
WARD Delegates from the Districts
Representatives of sector unions and enterprises
Colleagues in Government
Ladies and gentlemen
Comrades and friends

As we commemorated 50 years of the historic Women's March of 9 August 1956 last year, we acknowledged the immeasurable contribution made to freedom and democracy by all womenfolk.

Central to our commemorations were deliberations over the socio-economic status of women particularly those residing on the fringes of society, the oppressed toilers in weather worn rags, commonly perceived as the face of the world's peasantry.

Our achievement in engendering gender equality as enshrined in the Constitution encouraged us to harness women's economic justice which without a doubt is critical in thwarting rural poverty and hunger.

It is for this reason that rural women in South Africa are at the centre of our endeavours in bridging the divide between the First and Second Economies of our country.

We became conscious of the fact that our attempts in strengthening our rural communities can only yield results once we mobilise rural women into a powerful, active and united force that will know how best to seize economic opportunities represented to them.

The formation of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development (WARD) certainly gave voice, energy and prominence to the pinpricks affecting rural women.

It is for this reason that I would like to urge all district representatives to step-up their mobilisation efforts by drawing more rural women into WARD. Rural women should not be left out of the loop when we start counting our gains in Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment within Agriculture. WARD's voyage into the space of our rural masses must concern itself with alleviating the plight of rural women who continue to bear the brunt of unemployment and discrimination of a different kind.

Programme Director,

As hundreds of delegates from all corners of the world descend upon Durban before 23 April for the 4th World Congress of Rural Women, we shall be reminding fellow South Africans of the role the global society played in the attainment of our Freedom.

We shall be echoing the names of women figures who steadfastly spearheaded the various international anti-apartheid formations.

This Congress will further grant many a person the understanding of the global struggle of our rural women that is also the struggle of our own rural womenfolk.

Together with our friends from beyond these shores we shall be committing our diverse energies towards the achievement of socio-economic justice for our sisters and mothers from our countryside.

We are confident that the 4th Congress of Rural Women will indeed serve to guide us on how best to extricate our rural women from that dead-end-ally of abject poverty. We trust that South Africa's delegates will be able to engage us in fruitful discussions around means of pushing rural women to the forefront of rural enterprise ownership post the Congress.

Programme Director,

Let me not hesitate in pointing out that the hallmark Women in Agriculture Conference of 2002 in De Aar of which I had the occasion of addressing, galvanised government towards achieving the following:
* Having 30% of the annual allocation of Comprehensive Agricultural Support (CASP) for women only driven projects. (provision of infrastructure on the farms and implements)
* Export readiness-Training of women co-operatives e.g. Commercialisation of goats and fair-trade. Our emphasis is indeed on training for we want our female farmers to exploit the export market opportunities that have been unlocked. Our quest is that of cultivating countless commercial black female farmers in our second decade of freedom.
* Project composition - we have made a deliberate policy directive to have 50% women representation in all projects supported by the Department.
* Access to land - making available state land to women farmers and Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD). Women will continue to a centre stage in land allocation and development programmes.
* Food security - As custodians of food security, women constitute 80% of all food security projects that the Department is supporting.
* As the Northern Cape Province, we have espoused the Female Farmer of the Year Competition as a vehicle used for support interventions, identification of potential in aspirant women farmers as well as capacity building.
* We are, through WARD harnessing dialogue for the continuous economic empowerment of women in agriculture and rural development.

As bastions of our African agricultural heritage and custodians of food security, I also wish to re-iterate, that we shall continue to be deliberately blunt in ensuring that rural women reap the fruits of our green revolution as we allocate 30% of prime agricultural land to the African majority by 2014, and that the necessary support is available so that women take their rightful place in the agricultural sector as their male counterparts.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a province, we are committed to the cause of reshaping the land and agrarian landscape by addressing lack of skills among rural women who are still finding themselves marginalized in decision making, access to information and finance.

The solidarity we shall be displaying towards other rural women must also be seen in the context of exchanging experience on models of success in rural development and networking to further improve on strides made.

Our united front says we must also be battle ready in dealing with the challenges of global warming which is already posing a serious threat through climate change to agriculture.

Hence it is heartening to note that globalisation, sustainable development, gender equality, food security, the impact of new technologies on rural women and the empowerment and public policies supporting rural women would take centre stage at the Congress.

Ladies and gentleman,
We are dedicated in our principle that the Millennium Development Goals which committed us to reducing poverty by half in 2015 can never be achieved without addressing the plight of rural women who, in the South African context, were worst affected by the triple-oppression-effect.

They are the ones that continue to carry the curse of dependent minors, are land-less, property-less and power-less.

The less-factor can be best remedied through the adoption of a multi-pronged approach in revolutionising agriculture's ownership boundaries for the economic advancement or rural women.

Programme Director, in conclusion

I wish to point out that as government, we are duty bound to promote awareness raising on contribution women make in agriculture and rural development and challenges they are faced with; promote a learning opportunity to develop new skills and access to information and networks by encouraging women to form and/or join the agricultural organisations and promote dialogue through fora, such as this one.

We must be seen promoting a co-operative relationship between Government and networks in the rural development sphere.

On behalf of the Provincial Government and the Department of Agriculture and Land Reform, I wish you sound deliberations and trust that you shall represent the Northern Cape well and with ease at the 4th World Congress in Durban next month.

I thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government
26 March 2007