[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

15 October 2008

“Climate change - rural women are part of the solution”

Programme director
Premier of Eastern Cape province, Hon. Mbulelo Sogoni
Minister in the Office of the President, Hon. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
MEC for Agriculture in the province, Hon. Gugile Nkwinti
Honourable members of parliament present here today
Honourable mayors and councillors
Country Representative of Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Ms Rosebud Kurwijila
Traditional leaders
Representatives of the farmers unions
Representatives of the various state-owned enterprises
Invited delegates from various institutions
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen:

Today South Africa joins the rest of the world in celebrating the World Rural Women’s Day devoted each year to honour rural women. This idea began at the United Nations Conference for Women in Beijing in September 1995.

This was a practical way of obtaining recognition and support for the multiple roles of rural women who are mostly farmers and small entrepreneurs.

The website of the World Rural Women’s Day further states that:
“Rural women make up more than a quarter of the world population. They contribute to the wellbeing of their families and the development of rural economies. Because of their key role in food production and food security, it was decided that the World Rural Women’s Day fall on the 15 October the day before the World Food Day”.

The 15 October provides rural women a focal point to:

* raise the profile of rural women;
* sensitise both the government and public to their crucial, yet largely unrecognised roles, and
* promote action in their support by fighting inequalities and prejudices against rural women.

Programme director, prejudices against many of our rural women is still prevalent even in present day democratic South Africa. This is evident when Chrisie Setlhafuno, 79, was finally buried this past weekend after a three-week legal battle between her family and the owner of the farm they have lived on for more than 60 years.

According to the Sowetan of 13 October 2008, Setlhafuno died on 17 September at her home on the farm Buffelsvlei, near Ventersdorp. When her family reported the death to farmer Wimpie Rossouw he immediately instructed them not to bury her on the farm, citing environmental concerns as one of his reasons.

The Sowetan reports that the family, who believe the farmer’s actions are based on racism, took the matter to the Ventersdorp magistrate’s court but it ruled in favour of the farmer.

Following this, an appeal was launched with the Land Claims Court, which ruled on Thursday, 9 October 2008 that the family had every right to bury the deceased on the farm. It is in this spirit that I commend and applaud the court for the decision it had reached.

At the beginning of my speech I said this day is devoted to honour rural women and to raise their profiles. I therefore feel greatly honoured to introduce to you our Annual Female Farmer of the year 2008, Ms Bongiwe Kali, who won in the category: top producer for national markets. Ms Kali identified the need for day-old chickens in her area and then started her own hatchery Nosandla Poultry Production. She has six incubators, each taking 1 500 eggs per cycle. Apart from day-old chicks she also sells table eggs, broilers and vegetables. The farm employs 12 workers who are regularly attending workshops. The produce is marketed at Border Farmers Produce Market, Spar, Nandos and street vendors. Ms Kali is a day-old chick expert and is able to give technical, marketing and production advice to newcomers in the field.

The theme for this year’s celebrations is “climate change - rural women are part of the solution”. It is therefore imperative for me to devote part of my speech to this theme. Programme director, climate change is any change in climate over time owing to natural variability or human behaviour and activities. Human activities such as the burning of fossils fuels (oil, coal, natural gas, etc.) and clearing of forests have increased the concentration of the greenhouse gases (GHG).

Climate change, especially global warming is a serious risk to poverty reduction and threatens to undo decades of development effects and the basic elements of life for people around the world especially the poor, rural women and children who are often denied access to water, food production, health, use of land and the environment.

Rural women in agriculture can play a very significant role in reducing the negative impact and addressing challenges posed by climate change and variability by participating in climate change issues (awareness workshops, conferences, forums, training, etc.) and adopting the best mitigation and adaptation measures and strategies.

Awareness is one of the adaptation strategies that women can promote at their social clubs, community organisations, family gatherings and churches interacting with other women whereby traditional coping strategies will be shared. Local rural women development groups must not interact with local structures only, but also engage provincial and national structures such as Women in Agriculture and Rural Development (WARD) to share some experiences and lessons learned.

Indigenous knowledge on mitigating and adapting to climate change should be disseminated, promoted and practised by rural women. Such knowledge has to be recognised and documented in order to capacitate the rural young women, children, etc. Women must build the resilience of socio-ecological systems and develop effective communication strategies for timely information on the occurrences of events.

Women should assist in changing the lifestyles of many people particularly the youth and illiterates. Women, especially in rural areas, can influence many people to change their behaviours such as deforestation, polluting the environment, etc. in reducing or minimising the emission of greenhouse gases. While cutting down trees for wood, people can plant trees so as to increase sink and decrease sources of greenhouse gases.

Programme director, we are quite aware that sink is a process which removes greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by growing trees where these were previously non-existent. Uncontrolled logging, collection of wood, fire and overgrazing are taking their toll particularly in communal areas. Women, through their community organisations and study groups can advise communities on how to take care of their environment. Access to new technology in production and energy, e.g. electricity at rural communities, must be cascaded to the level of rural women to reduce the dependency on firewood.

In domestic activities women are often in a better position to note certain environmental hazards such as droughts, contaminated floods water, heat waves, etc. Mitigation and adaptation strategies led by women can benefit their households and local communities, and therefore they should place an emphasis on prevention and mitigation strategies such as:
* supporting risk management initiatives
* research of large-scale epidemics and
* providing early warning information on markets, weather and climate

For agriculture, adaptation is very important. Female farmers can adopt some best farming practices such as:
* Conservation of water in a soil profile to prevent a dry/hot spell from having a negative impact;
* planting a variety of crops to maximise the chance that some will succeed;
* minimum/ zero tillage;
* installing irrigation to counter short-term dry spells and droughts; and
* increasing fertilisation to provide crops with the ability to tolerate short term-stress.

Effective participation of rural woman in assisting in the establishment of people-centred Early Warning Systems (EWS) will enhance knowledge sharing and dissemination of the information to the local communities.

However, because of various challenges, such as lack of resources (finance, infrastructure, etc.) facing women in rural areas, collective efforts and partnership with relevant role players, community organisations and stakeholders such as government can ensure success in implementing the abovementioned measures.

Food security, especially in Africa, is linked to the prevailing climate. Any long or short-term changes thereof have a direct impact on the availability of high-quality affordable staples necessary to feed our nation. South Africa’s climate is highly variable and is particularly vulnerable to climate change, as farming depends to a great extent on the quality of the rainy season. Increased droughts in combination with higher temperatures could have a serious impact on the availability of food. The current drought that has ravaged the country and the region since 2002 and heavily impacted on rural women will extend beyond food shortages and negatively affects national economies and reduces the country’s ability to export crops and generate foreign currency.

To a certain extent the recent price escalations of agricultural commodities have, linked the production of renewable energy. The poor and vulnerable communities will suffer more as basic food will become unaffordable and inaccessible. Therefore what is needed is to create research opportunities for women in order to avoid food insecurity among women and children. Although climate change has a direct and indirect impact on agricultural activities and food production, the impact may not always be negative but there could be some positive benefits which could create opportunities for women. Renewable energy production, for instance, can be an ideal opportunity where women can contribute to the growing economy by creating jobs for other women. However, a renewable energy programme can be good for the country if it can be well managed with the use of relevant technologies in order to address the challenge of food security.

The Department of Agriculture supports research and development initiatives and programmes conducted throughout the world for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the processes influencing climate change and improving long range-prediction. Rain dependant agricultural activities, including livestock production, form the fundamental economic base of many African countries. Taking cognisance of national and international climate patterns, these realities should be part of our decision making process and strategic interventions when existing and new research and development projects are being evaluated. A few of these are minimising evaporation, cultivar choice, the incorporation of durable drought resistance in our cultivars, optimising irrigation scheduling, rotational production systems, etc.

Lack of access to research opportunities for rural women has to be addressed in order to maximise their participation in research activities, especially in rural areas where many women have been marginalised. Researchers must employ relevant methodologies such as Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA) where communities such as rural woman are involved in research activities for their benefit.

Several research and development initiatives on climate change have already been undertaken by the national, regional and international research centres. In this regard the department, in collaboration with other stakeholders such as the Agricultural Research Council, has identified a number of climate change research projects such as the greenhouse gases inventory, drought mapping, and mitigation and adaptation options for agricultural production.

Programme director, economic growth is important for generating livelihood opportunities for rural women in poor communities, enabling them to escape from poverty. It can contribute to the ability of governments to provide important services such as education in climate change modelling which will enhance food production. Improved forecasts of seasonal climate for South Africa are very important to the community.

You will quite agree that many critical agricultural decisions ranging from farm to policy level, interact with climate, but most of these decisions should be made several months in advance, before the impact of climate effects could be realised. Therefore, the stance taken by Government to address climate issues by fully participating in international conventions such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and, secondly, developing the National Climate Change Response Strategy that will lead to sector plans development with full stakeholder participation including rural women. In addition to the National Climate Change Response Strategy the Conservation of the Agricultural Resources Act (Act No. 43 of 1983) was promulgated to provide for control over the utilisation of the natural agricultural resources of South Africa in order to promote the conservation of the soil, water sources, vegetation, and the combating of weeds and other invader plants.

In conclusion, rural women living in poverty are the most threatened by the dangers that stem from climate change. They are also key actors in ensuring their communities’ ability to cope with and adapt to climate change. When we approach climate change from the perspective of women, we see the ways that women are made vulnerable to threats associated with climate change, and that women's skills and leadership are crucial for people's survival and recovery. Therefore, defending the full range of women's human rights within the context of addressing climate change is essential both to protecting women themselves and to cultivating their capacity for leadership on which so many lives depend.

Lastly, programme director, capacitating rural woman will enhance the nation’s capacity in addressing climate change challenges.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Agriculture
15 October 2008