For generations, agriculture has been viewed as a male-dominated sector.
Yet across Gauteng women are challenging this perception, moving beyond subsistence farming into commercial agriculture and proving that farming can be a powerful path to economic independence, food security and job creation.
Women play an important role in Gauteng’s agricultural sector, contributing to food production, livestock farming, horticulture and rural economic development.
Increasing numbers are entering commercial markets, producing crops such as maize, soya, spinach and cabbage.
However, many women farmers continue to face barriers, including limited access to land, finance, machinery, markets, skills and infrastructure. These challenges are particularly significant for young women seeking to enter agriculture without the capital and equipment needed to establish viable enterprises.
The story of Caroline Tiba, a 60-year-old farmer from the West Rand, demonstrates what is possible when determination meets opportunity.
Commercial success does not always begin with large tracts of land or sophisticated machinery. Sometimes it begins with a small garden, determination and the willingness to turn an opportunity into a sustainable livelihood
Tiba, founder and director of Rotanganedza Community Care and Badirile Clinic in Brandvlei, started a food garden in her back yard. Today she operates a 2ha farm and supplies produce to larger markets, including Spar and City Deep.
Her journey demonstrates that commercial success does not always begin with large tracts of land or sophisticated machinery. Sometimes it begins with a small garden, determination and the willingness to turn an opportunity into a sustainable livelihood.
Through Rotanganedza Community Care, which receives support from the Gauteng department of social development, Tiba has combined agriculture with community development by creating employment and establishing sustainable food gardens that provide beneficiaries with fresh produce.
The organisation also conducts awareness and advocacy programmes on HIV/Aids, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis, while encouraging communities to understand and exercise their rights.
For Tiba, farming is about more than growing vegetables. It is about restoring dignity and tackling poverty and unemployment. Her personal journey makes her achievements even more remarkable. After experiencing epileptic seizures and later suffering a stroke as a young woman, she refused to allow them to define her future.
“It was not an easy journey for me to be where I am today, but I soldiered on,” she said.
Before establishing her food garden, Tiba worked on a mushroom farm. Her determination eventually attracted the support of a woman who recognised her potential and donated the land on which she now farms.
Today her organisation has expanded into Limpopo and the North West, employing and working with more than 200 people and volunteers in the three provinces.
Skills alone will not be enough. The cost of entering agriculture remains a major obstacle
Her story illustrates an important lesson: when women are given opportunities, they do not change only their own lives but create opportunities for others. This is the kind of development that should define agriculture in Gauteng.
The government has an important role to play in creating an environment in which more women like Tiba can succeed. Support for agricultural production, enterprise development, skills and access to finance is essential, but it must be accompanied by mentorship, market access and technical assistance.
The Gauteng department of social development, through its sustainable livelihoods interventions and partnerships such as the Rebafenyi Development Centre in Hammanskraal, has contributed to equipping unemployed young people with skills in crop production and co-operative development.
Agriculture should also be presented to young people as a modern and diverse career. Opportunities extend beyond farming to agricultural engineering, agronomy, food science, agricultural economics, horticulture, equipment maintenance and precision agriculture, where technology involving GPS, software and drones is increasingly being used.
But skills alone will not be enough. The cost of entering agriculture remains a major obstacle. Farm equipment such as tractors, ploughs and cultivators is unaffordable for many emerging farmers. Greater access to affordable or subsidised equipment could encourage more young people, particularly women, to enter the sector.
Financial support must similarly be linked to access to markets. Producing crops is only one part of running a successful agricultural enterprise; farmers must also have reliable markets where they can sell their produce.
The future of agriculture cannot be built without women. From the backyard garden to the supermarket shelf, Gauteng’s women are already showing us what is possible. The task now is to ensure that more women have the opportunity to follow that path and that their success translates into jobs, food security and stronger communities for generations to come.
- Chibambu is a communications official at the Gauteng department of social development
Sowetan Sowetan
www.sowetan.co.za
