Perspectives on black female producers in South African agriculture

Impact Partner Content: Absa / by Dr Langelihle Simela, Business Development Manager, Absa AgriBusiness and Wessel Lemmer, Senior Agricultural Economist at Absa Agribusiness

Perspective on black women in agriculture: participation, support and prospects. — In South Africa, agriculture is known as male dominated industry - a fact well supported by the 2017 census of commercial agriculture. Therefore, it must be understood that black women who aspire to be become successful farmers enter largely unchartered waters.  

In 2017, South Africa had a total of 3 902 African farmers. Of these, the majority are in the Free State province (16%), followed by Limpopo and North-West (14% each) and Kwa-Zulu Natal (13%).  The Northern Cape and Western Cape each have the lowest number of African farmers (6% of the total).

How many female farmers do we have?

In 2017 the women who actively ran farms were 4 034, which is about one out of 10 farmers in South Africa. The Free State and Western Cape have better gender representation than other provinces.  Approximately one out of every six farmers are women in these two provinces while the rest of the provinces are on par with the national ratio. Having highlighted the gender representation in the provinces, the question is; does the fact that the Free State and Western Cape have a higher representation of women farmers mean that they offer better support to women than other provinces?

Can you rely on government grants and sponsorships?

Generally, farmers in the Western Cape (both male and female) received more government grants and support compared to other provinces. Of the total amount of government grants and sponsorships that were awarded in 2017, Western Cape farmers received 33%. This was followed by Northern Cape farmers who secured 17% of the total, the Eastern Cape, 14% and Mpumalanga, 11%.  Thus the Western Cape is performing relatively better than other provinces in the distribution of government grants and sponsorships to farmers.

Over and above monetary grants and sponsorships, access to land is crucial for farmers.  

Can you rent land from government? 

In 2017 farmers rented a total of 886 990 hectares from government. The North-West Province (which is predominately a grazing and grain farming area) leases out 49% of all government land that is for agricultural purposes.  The Free State Province leases out 16% and the Northern Cape Province, 13%.  Although the Western Cape Province provides the most government grants and sponsorship to farmers, it leases out 5% of the total government agricultural land, possibly smaller but higher value farms. 

Can you rent land from traditional administrations?

Nationally, traditional administrations leased out 192 401 hectares in 2017.  Of that, administrations in Limpopo lease out the most land (26%) to farmers, followed by Mpumalanga (18%) and KwaZulu Natal (14%).  The three Cape provinces and Gauteng lease out the least land for commercial farming purposes.

Agricultural income 

The total income for the commercial agriculture industry in 2017 was R332,8 billion. The major contributors to total income were livestock farming (36%), followed by mixed farming (29%) and horticulture (20%). 

Other support and opportunities

As attested to by many stories in agriculture media, women are certainly making in-roads as successful farmers in South Africa, across diverse commodities and farming systems.  This is enhanced by the fact that, generally, South Africa has favourable policies for promoting women participation and growth in the economy. One such policy is broad-based black economic empowerment, which compels companies to include women in their supply and distribution chains, develop their skills, and offer them roles as managers and directors in agricultural entities. Moreover, most government support schemes have quotas for women. With well-prepared propositions, budding women agripreneurs may draw on the support of companies’ enterprise and supplier development programmes as well as government programmes to enter into existing supply chains. 

Supporting women in business - Lionesses of Africa

Impact Partner Content: Absa Anna Phosa of Dreamland Piggery shares how Absa helped her grow from a small-scale farmer into a big enterprise. South African entrepreneur, Anna Phosa, was always a go-getter and proved it's never too late to reach your goals and exceed even your own expect

As the highly acclaimed Anna Phosa’s success illustrates, women who establish themselves in the agri-sector have an ever-growing demand for their products. But, as is the case for most farmers, the road to success is not easy. It takes passion, determination, appropriate skills set, willingness to learn and perseverance to succeed. The business opportunities do not end at the farm gate either. Opportunities also exist in the input and machinery supplies as well as offtake and processing of agricultural products. 

What support does Absa provide to women in agriculture?

As Absa, we offer up to date information based on our in-depth knowledge of the agriculture sector. With suitable partners who offer technical assistance, facilitate access to inputs, machinery and equipment as well as access to markets, we offer competitive financing terms to enable early stage women agripreneurs to grow. Through our universal banking approach, we endeavor to holistically address customers’ needs, recognizing that they are not just businesswomen, but humans with broader needs and diverse roles in society.