Introduction:  You are the leader of your own life, therefore exchange every negative thought with a positive thought! – Dr Lanette Hattingh 

Rural women play a central role in supporting their households by generating income, ensuring there is food on the table for their families and improving the overall wellbeing of their communities.

The industrialisation of agriculture falls mainly within typically male areas of decision-making, including the economic risks involved. These areas include the competitive use of machinery, agrochemicals and high-breeding plant varieties; the cultivation of cash crops and the breeding of large livestock for supra-regional markets.

It is dangerous being a woman in South Africa. It is especially difficult being a working woman in South Africa.

While 60-80% of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are female, only an estimated 20% are landholders. "With females in farming jobs only making up less than half of the total, we can be certain that women who actually own the farms have numbers that are even less," says Ray-Ann Sedres, head of transformation at Santam

CLIMATE change is happening: Scientists say it is, environmentalists agree and, most important, women farmers report the truth of it. Oxfam is very clear that climate change is the biggest threat to global hunger and that it is the women who produce our food who suffer first — and worst.