Government needs to revisit customary law and use land reform to enable female farmers.

Globally women play a significant role in agriculture. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, women are the backbone of the agricultural sector and make up almost half of the agricultural labour force, according to a working paper about the role of women in agriculture by the Agricultural Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture released its final report recently which expresses support for expropriation without compensation in certain circumstances.

Chairperson Vuyokazi Mahlati highlighted the need to come up with a solution to the issue of land in SA as soon as possible.

“The urgency and constitutional imperative of land reform in SA can neither be taken lightly nor postponed,” Mahlati said.

It is estimated that 104 environmental activists have been killed in the Philippines since 2016.

A report from the international watchdog organization, Global Witness, has called the Philippines the “deadliest country in the world” for land and environmental defenders.

A NORTH Queensland court has recognised the Widi people’s ancestral connection to a quarter-of-a-million hectares in the Isaac region.

At a special hearing on-country at Nebo today the Federal Court formally recognised the Widi people’s native title and interests over 249,766 hectares of land and waters, west of Mackay.

Assistant Minister for State Development Julieanne Gilbert said the determination recognised the Widi people’s ancestral connection to their country and further strengthened the Widi people’s culture and language for the next generation.

Cape Town - An expert advisory panel on land reform and agriculture appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year has released a final report with recommendations. It also gave the go-ahead for a constitutional amendment for expropriation of land without compensation, but with strict conditions.

Indonesia’s Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry and the National Land Agency (BPN) have an ambitious target of distributing 60 million land certificates for land ownership by 2025. 11 million land certificates are expected to be distributed in 2019, under its Agrarian Reform program. The program’s intended purpose is to restructure ownerships, tenures and uses of agrarian resources, especially lands. 

INVESTIGATIONS into the claims of ancestral land by the commission of inquiry established by the government may not necessarily lead to restitution for the dispossessed communities.

The deputy minister of information Engel Nawatiseb made these remarks in a statement issued last week.

NEW YORK, USA – Without the full participation and leadership of women, “we have no hope” of realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the president of the United Nations General Assembly told gender equality leaders on Monday.

“This is an obvious point to make, but it is, sadly, one that we cannot repeat enough”, she said, opening the day-long discussion at UN Headquarters in New York to identify best practices aimed to knock down barriers hindering women’s full participation and leadership, in what she called “our shared mission this year”.

The project has long been lamented by residents in the southern region of Arequipa where farmers say the mine will pollute their fields and affect water supplies

LIMA - Protesters blocked a portion of Peru's main coastal highway on Monday in the start of a new challenge to a billion-dollar copper mining project that has been a lightning rod for conflict.

Soaring temperatures and a long delay to the start of the monsoon season are behind some of the most severe water shortages in New Delhi's history – and the water scarcity is even leading to violence.

The shortages and rising prices for this precious commodity mean that the Indian capital's residents are easy prey to criminal gangs, known as the ‘water mafia’, who are attempting to fill the gap in supplies. 

Fights are breaking out when the tankers reach parched neighbourhoods as residents are desperate to get the first drops.

The Land Rights Act (LRA), which was passed into law in 2018 by members of the 54th Legislature, will serve as an impetus that will holistically empower women across the country, Cecelia Kuetee, a resident of Nimba County, has said.

Madam Kuetee expressed the hope to see a society where women, who she said have been marginalized, will be empowered, especially with unhindered access to land.

She recently gained access to her father’s land and cocoa farm, but said a robust awareness exercise of the LRA and supporting organizations remain pivotal to achieving her goal.

• After defeating a plan to turn much of the Aru Islands into a series of giant sugar plantations, indigenous people in the eastern Indonesian archipelago are mulling how to raise their standard of living without sacrificing their rich environment.
• Time may be short: Indonesia’s minister of agriculture appears to be pushing another corporate-backed agribusiness plan in Aru involving Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad, an up-and-coming tycoon better known as Haji Isam.