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Portrait de James Smit
James
Smit

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I read daily about agro-industries, agriculture, marginalized or women excluded participating in agriculture value chains and wonder why do we study, discuss and keep evaluating what we already know. Discrimination against women. Firstly if women are marginalized, which they are, in agriculture then maybe it is time to start at the bottom and correct what is the cause. Agriculture. Agriculture is the science of cultivating the ground, including the harvesting of crops, and the rearing and management of livestock. Farming covers the implementation of agriculture. This could be either small scale, or large scale. There are different types of farming. A large farm is called plantation. Farming is a significant economic sector and with a plantation comes silos and barns. Agriculture is controlled by men mostly and for women to break through this barrier is virtually impossible. Therefore adopt a totally and radical new approach. If help was not on hand this discussion would not transpire.

Women need to set up Co-Op farming. Set up silos, set up containerized refrigeration and through repetitive farming, not agriculture, reduce handling loss, post- harvest loss and risk. The help on hand that I mention are the banks. African Development Bank, countries openly financially supporting empowerment of women and set up the plantations.

Each marginalized women 1 hectare farmer feeding into the co-op. Africa is vibrant with qualified women that can be applied to acquiring new markets for marginalized women. If not then this discussion is futile. Get farming right, set up the silos and post-harvest storage and you directly start to not only address poverty but eliminate it. What is needed for this to be successful is only women. Starve the local markets. Walk away from existing export markets and task the upper management of the plantations and co-ops with finding new markets. If I want to sell pineapples based on the enzyme bromelain that fights cancer I make sure my packaging makes mention of it. If you want to promote the cause of women you make mention of it.

Added value comes from processing fruits and veggies. Have the process facility on the plantation. Now women are not selling fresh bulk subject to risk of post-harvest. They are selling added value condensate or pure organic. Women of Africa need to break the genetic seed strangle-hold that the developed countries force down on Africa. No matter how much women want to participate in added value and agro-business as a whole it is not going to materialize under the current system. There radical change is necessary for women to empower themselves.

A Corporal in the army cannot empower himself with leadership orders and instructions because above that Corporal is a Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Major etc. Pecking order or structural rank. There is no difference between the example and the reality. If the Corporal wants to make his own decisions there is only one way. Resign from the Military and start his own business. Women need to break out and give birth to a whole new industry.

So forget about agro-business, Agricultural Science and added value in its current form. Stick to farming the 1 hectare. Start a co-op and a plantation. Task the bright, talented business women to create the market then starve the present market and add the value and sell to the newly created market.

If farmers are throwing away (losing, risk, post-harvest loss, handling errors, manipulated markets etc.) then a cut in gate price by 40% of the market value for a guaranteed market makes perfect sense. Women need to start concentrating on developing their own market and for those that disagree or are hesitant to understand and accept this concept, please know one fact. Africa has its fair share of dynamic women capable of overcoming this marketing mountain.

Throw away the philosophy of “Better the Devil you know than the one you don’t know” and establish your market. Forget about everything else concerning agriculture, farming, agro-business etc. and concentrate on creating the market. Then farming follows, added value gets started and by this very empowerment of women, poverty is addressed, education is guaranteed and women become equal (if not better).

The only challenges to women’s engagement in priority value chains, agribusiness and industries, including value addition, and commercialization of agricultural products is the ability to truly believe in themselves and to break away from the present structures and corporations that men control, manipulate and harvest from. Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) –including the AfDB- and other development partners do not fully support women’s engagement in all sectors of farming and if they did they would start sanctions on men-run agricultural corporations and forget about how to scale-up an existing business.

These businesses are coping and should therefore be addressed later, after marginalized 1 hectare poverty stricken women farmers have been helped, nurtured and come on-line in participation Banks will have to make a choice and address the challenges facing marginalized women. So many institutions refer to themselves as the “People Solution” the “Peoples Bank” etc. Does this reflect honesty, transparency and fair access or is this lip-service to ignore discrimination against women thereby marginalizing them and condemning them to abject poverty.

The ENABLE (Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment) Youth initiative cannot be used or utilized in any way to support gender equality in any sector because women need to break away, start their own agro-business and from there develop ENABLE that in turn will address employment and empowerment Success stories on empowering women in agribusiness, industries and markets should not be scaled up but in fact be brought on board to support and lead the way when women infant farmers under a new empowerment farming system can be left on their own and only monitored before any scaled-up policy. Any other approach condemns the 1 hectare marginalized women farmers even more and keeps them in dire farming conditions.