Obstacles Facing Emerging Women Farmers "Research Shows Land Reform do not Benefit Women

Press Release

2 March 2010

Obstacles facing emerging women farmers

“Research shows Land Reform do not benefit women”

The Surplus People Project, an NGO working with rural communities in the Northern and Western Cape, will be hosting a research findings workshop on 5 March 2010 to launch their detailed report on women farmers facing land-access issues and discrimination on the basis of sex, race, and class. The women in this study see farming as a survival strategy, a means of alleviating poverty and uplifting their community. 

We cannot refuse the opportunity offered by this report to listen to the voices of emerging women farmers and understand agricultural policy and food systems from the perspective of those who are most marginalised. 

The report also advocates a radical approach to reform, grounded in a feminist strategy for women’s liberation, agrarian reform and food sovereignty.

“These findings should remind us that women’s issues do not come secondary to issues of race and class, but are rather part and parcel of these systems of oppression,” says Herschelle Milford, SPP director.

The report will be presented by Penny Perenzee, leader of ON PAR, followed by an open discussion facilitated by Shereen Essof, coordinator of the Feminist Alternative Collective.

The workshop is free of charge and open to the public, commencing at 9:30 and ending at 1:30 at The River Club, Observatory, on Friday 5 March.

Please contact Ronald Wesso 0744337608 or Herschelle Milford on 021 448 5605 for more information.