ABSTRACT

Often gender is relegated to women’s issues while it is a social and power construct determining the position of men and women in society and determining access to resources. In agrarian communities, land is a critical resource. Land access and ownership are often seen as man’s right despite the dominant presence of women in agricultural production, thus treating women as secondary owners of land and at the periphery of agribusiness. Smallholder agriculture is a key livelihood option for most Southern African Development Community (SADC) communities and provides National Food Security in most SADC countries where most women produce the food. However, their gender puts them at the periphery of agribusiness due to lack or poor access to land, finance, markets, skills and knowledge. Often, gender biased sociocultural practices play a key role as barriers despite the existence of the SADC gender policy and the SADC gender protocol and barometer. Inequality and barriers for agricultural transformation still persist. Policies, programmes and practices that address gender-based inequality in agriculture are required for women to sustain and advance into agribusiness, especially where they dominate households as heads and producers in order for household’s food security and welfare to be secured. Transformed personnel in extension, research government, progressive cultural institutions and NGOs equipped in participatory methods to engage policy alongside cultural and socially imbedded practices to shift the paradigm are central for such a change.