Rural womens' agricultural productivity at Nkonjeni Area : capacity building and empowerment
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Date
2002
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Abstract
This study investigated the strengths and weaknesses of the rural women's agricultural productivity and problems facing the farming women in the Nkonjeni area.
It looked at the issues like deprivation of land ownership for the rural women, lack of appropriate education, not having access to working capital and an overload of household chores as the contributory factors to poor agricultural production of women in rural areas.
The study considered the possibility of empowering rural women through capacity building as the method of improving their production of agricultural crops. The characteristics that were investigated were the socio-cultural factors, economic, educational and infrustructural factors mat would influence their empowerment process.
The study engaged a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Various sources of data like books and journals were used. Also a number of methods of collecting data were utilized to find the information from the selected sample of the farming population. The study was conducted among the farming women of Nkonjeni area in Mahlabathini district.
The findings revealed that their illiterate position poses a threat in their empowerment and the overload is really crippling their efforts towards their development. It also revealed that the gender discrimination towards
rural women is still a problem though the government has repealed laws that are depriving women of equal opportunities. It was also found that the lawlessness of the community members contributed enormously on their farming problems because unattended livestock that is owned by their neighbours destroys their produce.
Recommendations that emanated from the study focussed on the empowerment of women through the change of attitude towards development. The people need to be supported as individuals to give the sense of pride towards the project they are concerned with. Women need to be helped in solving their education problems in their own neighbourhood to avoid exposing them to dangers of travelling long distances at night. Development programmes should focus on taking women on board as active participants in their own development not the silent recipients.
Description
Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2002.
Keywords
Rural women- land ownership., Agriculture-women.