•chieftainess Malembeka ‘flies’ into the arena.

By MILDRED KATONGO –

AGRICULTURE is an important driver of growth and poverty alleviation in any given nation.
In the SADC region, women have become the majority contributors in this sector.
They are the back-bone of national development. Women make a large contribution to agriculture and, therefore, need to be supported by all well-meaning leaders.
Many of the small-scale farmers in Zambia are women and can be found mainly in the rural areas.
Despite having other roles to play as care-givers, home managers and so forth, women still manage to juggle their time to fit in the puzzle to ensure that they contribute meaningfully to national development.
Besides being an important human resource component in agriculture, women are expected to run their homes by providing for each member of the family equally.
Notwithstanding the fact that most of the work t on the land is exclusively manual, women are determined to raise enough food for consumption and sell it to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
The 2015 FRA price for maize and paddy rice is K75 per kg (1,400 per mt) and K65 per 40kg (1,500 mt for rice), respectiovely. FRA will this year purchase 500,000 metric tonnes and 2,10 mt paddy rice.
It is the women who wake up at the crack of dawn to rush to the fields to work.
They have to bear the brunt of using a hoe to till the land and ensure that food is provided for both their families and for the nation regardless of the obtaining weather patterns, cold or the heat of the  blazing sun.
In addition to the important roles that women play, one has to take into consideration that the agriculture activities which women under take are  labour intensive.
The critical role which they play by being food providers cannot be ignored but supported in whatever way possible.
Lately the FRA has embarked on an exercise of buying maize country wide and the majority of the small-scale farmers who are selling agricultural produce are the women.
Women are compelled to embark on such an exercise to ensure that they provide resources raised from the sale of the maize to send even their children to school among other things or paying for other necessities.
Indeed their efforts and inputs need to be saluted by all well meaning citizens.
Despite women being the majority farmers, labourers and entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector they still face a lot of challenges.
It is important to note that these farmers sometimes do not get paid on time yet they depend on the same sale of their agriculture produce to raise an income.
Chieftainess Malembeka of the Bulima people in Mpongwe District on the Copperbelt said while women provide the majority of the labour in agricultural production, their access and control over productive resources is greatly constrained due to gender  inequalities.
There are a lot of barriers that women face in carrying out their duties in the agriculture sector.
Chieftainess Malembeka high-lighted two pressing issues that the women in agriculture were currently facing.
The traditional ruler cited the access to land as one barrier that has forced many women in agriculture not to concentrate much in producing the much needed agricultural products, mostly the staple food which is maize.
The traditional leader said the law is not flexible as it did not allow women to access land without them having to encounter procedural challenges.
While some of them especially those in the rural areas can hardly read or write.
Many women do not own land of their own but solely depend on the land that has been bought by either their husbands or male relatives.
She noted with sadness that for women to access land they need to obtain their spouse’s consent which has turned out to be an impediment in most cases.
The traditional leader who is a farmer herself said women needed to be considered in all aspects of life as they play a major role in food security.
She said without the efforts of women in the agriculture sector there would be no food security.
“Women are the majority in the agriculture sector, we play a role in ensuring that there is food security, our efforts should be recognized and all well meaning Zambians should support us. The barriers which include access to land and financial resources should be eased,” she said.
Chieftainess Malembeka said there was also a need to have a deliberate policy that would enable women access financial resources like loans to help them have capital which would grow their small-scale businesses in Agriculture.
She said many homes were headed by women as they were providing for their families because mostly their spouse’s were found not to be involved in any work at all.
The Zambia National Farmers Union estimates that about 80 per cent of women in the rural areas are involved in agricultural practices nationwide.
This is a clear indication that women were working hard to ensure that people in the country had a meal on their tables.
Much support and deliberate policies aimed at supporting the women in agriculture need to be put in place.
It is true that women in Zambia have what it takes to lead the men not only in agricultural issues but even in other issues like economic development.