Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon MECs, hon members and the House at large, good afternoon. In addressing the call to address the poverty and the emancipation of women and ensure basic access to services for the rural poor, the ruling party has given its full support to the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme that is being spearheaded by the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform.
This strategy is viewed as the answer that many rural women have been waiting for, and promises access to health care facilities, water, food and jobs, which are all part of the bigger picture that is envisioned for rural women.
Currently, approximately 52% of South Africa's total population is women and of that amount 47% live in rural areas. South Africa's progressive Constitution and legislation provide the legal framework for equality and nondiscrimination especially in the provision of resources, but the challenge remains to implement these measures in order to improve the standard of living for women, especially those in rural areas.
Access to land remains a major constraint for women in South Africa as a whole. Land reform programmes and the tendency to break up communal land parcels, especially in areas of tribal and customary tenure, have almost exclusively transferred land rights to male heads of households. This lack of access to land for security and production has resulted in many women being disempowered, especially in rural areas. These women therefore have less decision-making authority over land use and land care, resulting in detrimental environmental management and loss of resources.
We need to address these issues by providing women with training and resources so that the custodians of our resources can be equipped with tools to use them sustainably. This can be done during the pilot project in Giyani and other sites identified by the department so that post-settlement support in the form of equipment, grants and training can be provided to the women, the providers of their families, empowering them to reach their potential.
Although rural women are assuming an increasingly prominent role in agriculture as producers and providers in developing countries, they remain amongst the most disadvantaged of all the users. The Food and Agricultural Organisation, the FAO, estimates that rural women are responsible for half of the world's food production and produce between 60% and 80% of the food in most developing countries.
Yet, despite their contribution to global food security, women farmers are frequently underestimated and overlooked in most development strategies. Men and women do not have the same access to resources and women's access is even more constrained as a result of cultural and traditional factors. All these concerns need to be addressed if women are to share in the wealth and opportunities that the sector presents.
While women represent a significant proportion of the farm labour force and subsistence food producers, they have been the last to benefit from economic and development transformation. Gender bias persists as farmers are still generally perceived as male by policy-makers. For this reason, women find it more difficult than men to gain access to valuable resources such as land, credit and agricultural inputs, technology, extension training and services that would enhance their production capacity. Their access to critical resources and services is limited.
Women in rural areas are severely affected by the lack of marketing facilities for agricultural products. Infrastructure and distribution channels are not available to market their products. Proper marketing analysis is needed in order to promote their products. Women in agriculture who do not benefit from proper marketing channels are themselves vulnerable to intermediaries who are able to exploit the situation by buying products at low prices and selling them at higher prices, thus making a huge profit.
In Giyani, for example, a partnership was established between the Macena Community Farm, which comprises a group of 36 women farmers, assisted by the Organic Farms Group and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to produce organic vegetables for the local Spar supermarket in Giyani. The farm is 15 hectares in size, but only four hectares are being used productively. Plans to expand the infrastructure to include a pack house, storage facility and shade-cloth nursery are under way. The challenge for the group is to have proper expertise and advice on extension services and production. These need to be provided by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries so that the community can be more productive and have more economic benefits.
Most studies show that in the efforts to generate household food supply and income, a substantial burden falls on women. Almost everywhere, women are responsible for processing, storing and preparing family food. Rural women also fetch water and firewood for the family. Above all, women are engaged as family labour in agriculture and wage labour, as well as in other income- earning activities. They generate a substantial proportion - and sometimes even all - of the basic daily food for the family.
In response to the plight of rural women in the agricultural sector, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has responded by reassessing its priorities and making funding available so that the rural communities of South Africa can be accommodated within the economy. The Minister is cognisant of the lack of enabling mechanisms to empower women in these areas and has initiated programmes to address these. Various grants and Mafisa - the Micro Agricultural Financial Institutions of SA - are being reinvented to give priority to groups that are vulnerable and marginalised.
This House fully welcomes and supports efforts put into increasing jobs and finding new employment and economic opportunities.
The Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme, LRAD, provides an excellent vehicle for redressing gender imbalances in land access and landownership, therefore improving the lives of rural women and the households they may be supporting. The programme serves as a means of creating opportunities to enable rural women to develop in numerous spheres of life, therefore giving them security against poverty and independent economic status.
By ensuring that women participate fully in asset redistribution and agrarian reform, the programme helps government to meet its international commitments, for example in terms of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Cedaw. In terms of the agricultural development programme, adult individuals apply for grants in their own right, rather than as members of households. This means that women can apply for grants to acquire land individually, or can pool their grants with whom they choose, therefore augmenting their control of the manner in which they benefit from the subprogramme.
In conclusion, I would like to say that we are on the right path as South Africa in realising the need to focus on rural development. We can show the world that what we have fought to achieve will be realised by all and therefore will empower women to eradicate the imbalances. I thank you, Chairperson. [Time expired.] [Applause.]