The World Bank recently released an interesting book titled Agriculture in Africa: Telling Myths from Facts. It covers a wide range of topics from smallholder land access, post-harvest losses, financing of agricultural inputs, agricultural labour productivity and women’s work in agriculture amongst others.
Having recently written an article on women’s contribution to the South African agricultural sector, I was quickly drawn in on the chapter that dealt with that subject. The book puts women’s share of labour in crop production at an average of 40%, with variations across countries. It is, however, worth noting is that the data does not cover the entire continent, it covers namely: Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. With that said, the countries cover a wide array of the continent’s farming zones.
Across the aforementioned countries, the highest share of women’s contribution to agricultural labour is 56% in Uganda, followed by 52% in both Tanzania and Malawi with the lowest being 24% in Niger.
The South African story does not feature in the book, but I will say a few words not only because it is International Women’s Day, but for the simple reason that we need diversity in all key positions of the agricultural sector. Crucially, as the sector continues to be viewed as an epicentre of growth and development in South Africa, it is important that diversity is prioritised along with these economic-growth ambitions.
In leadership roles, there has been progress in the past few years in increasing the number of women in management positions within the sector. Several national agricultural associations such as Fruit SA, AFASA, PMA Southern Africa, Grain SA’s farmer development programme and Agbiz Grain, amongst others, have prominent women at the helm.
Transforming the workplace for women in agriculture and beyond
With regard to the national labour market, women remain in the minority as far as the agricultural sector employment figures are concerned, making up a third of total employment in the sector, according to data from Statistics South Africa, which covers the past ten years.
The National Development Plan suggests that agriculture has the potential to create 1-million jobs by 2030. The view on whether this will be an attainable target is debatable, but the most important issue would be to explore ways of tackling gender disparities in these potential jobs so as to improve the proportion of women in the agricultural labour market in the next few years.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 80% of agricultural production is by smallholder farmers. And the female share of the agricultural labour force is the highest in the world.
But life for rural women isn’t easy. Women don’t have the same rights as men, and often have to juggle domestic duties and agricultural work - sowing, weeding and harvesting crops, but also making food for their families and collecting firewood and water.
And it can be much harder for women to yield the same results on their farms as men do, as they often have more limited access to land, agricultural extension services and technologies.
Empowering women is a central part of our work – and has been shown to have wider benefits as well. When women prosper, they tend to invest more in their homes and families, giving their children more nutritious food and keeping them healthy. In fact, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has estimated that if women were given the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase the yields on their farms by 20-30% - which would in turn reduce the number of hungry people in the world by around 12-17%.
Farm Africa works to understand the challenges that women face in a local context and adapts programmes to fit these conditions. This means:
- Involving women in the sale of produce at market, giving them more financial independence and a better idea of market prices so they can adapt their farming businesses accordingly
- Setting up women’s savings and loans groups, so that women can build up good financial records and apply for loans from banks to build up their businesses
- Running training sessions at times when women can attend them and providing crèche facilities
- Supporting women with agricultural projects that they can run from their homes, such as beekeeping and raffia weaving
By opening up new opportunities for women, we help them to develop new streams of income, which helps to lift themselves out of poverty. And when women have more economic empowerment and more opportunities, it helps the whole community to grow and prosper.
And that’s why our work with women is so important. Because equality for women really is progress for all.
Watch our webinar with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women to explore the state of entrepreneurship for women working in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa here. We discuss Farm Africa’s work with women smallholder farmers in Tanzania and Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s work empowering women to start, grow and sustain successful businesses.
