Increasing the benefits from rural agriculture for South Africa’s women

Abstract

Water and gender The challenges of high levels of poverty and deep inequality in South Africa are compounded by the lack of opportunities for employment in the higher-density rural areas of the country. Here, livelihoods are mostly dependent on remittances and government grants. The third most importance means of support is rainfed agriculture, which contributes some 10% to household survival. There is a general assumption that this sector can contribute more, though the ways and means to facilitate this is unclear. A recently completed WRC-funded study investigated exactly this question, and aims to tease out a strategy that can attain it. Those that stand to benefit are multiple. About 3.7 million people in South Africa consider themselves subsistenceoriented smallholders, and a further 200 000 to 300 000 are commercially-oriented, although categorisation and data is far from definitive. In this scenario, 60% of all black Africans involved in farming are women, outnumbering men by 65% in the category of ‘farming as an extra source of food’ .

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