Dec 28, 2015 | News

Capacitating women in Agriculture

Agriculture and climate change experts at the two-day Conference for Women in Agriculture in Durban, South Africa, themed “Investing in African Women: Opening the space for Agribusiness’’,  unanimously said that support for women farmers can boost growth of African economies.

The King highlighted Climate Change as one of the main issues affecting women farmers by stating that, “Climate change has had a serious impact on agricultural production in Africa while climate variability has hit hardest on women’’.  However, it appears that “very little has been done to address this disparity”. He emphasized that strategies and interventions targeting women need to be put in place

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PICD Director, Estherine Fotabong 

Gender inequality is dominant in the agriculture sector and this constitutes a bottleneck. We have to ensure that strong advocacy is made to ensure that all the cultural, social and economic barriers that prevent rural women from participating fully in the economic and political life of their countries are eliminated” said Mrs Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong, NEPAD Director of Programmes coordination and implementation.

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Mrs Zenebu Tadesse, Ethiopian Minister for Women, Children and Youth Affairs

Echoing the NEPAD Director’s statement, Mrs Zenebu Tadesse, Ethiopian Minister for Women, children and Youth Affairs said: “We are clear that the vicious cycle of poverty in Africa cannot be broken without empowering women. We must strive to use the opportunities that agribusiness offers to women, in order to look at them as socially empowered women’’

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L-R: Dr Tshitshi Mbatha – Agribusiness Development Agency, Ms Bodil Maal-NORAD, Mrs Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong- NEPAD Agency, H.E Queen Thandekile Zulu- Zulu Kingdom and He. Zenebu Tadesse- Ethiopian Minister

The conference ends on the 10th October and a call for immediate action in empowering small scale women farmers was highlighted by all in attendance.