Meet the African women making strides in agriculture

Thato Moagi

Thato Moagi is a 26-year-old farmer from the Limpopo province in South Africa. She manages her family’s farm, Legae La Banareng Farms, from which she produces grains, including yellow and white maize and vegetables. Her farm supplies grains to various local markets.

The 50-hectare Legae La Banareng farm has become a model of successful mixed farming, as they also keep bees, raise livestock – cattle, goats and sheep, as well as grow crops, such as potatoes, green beans, and onions.

The Nuffield Scholar’s hard work and achievements in agriculture has earned her many awards, including the Limpopo province’s Female Farmer of the Year and Female Entrepreneur of the Year, from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. She became the first South African to receive the prestigious Nuffield Agriculture Scholarship. Her chosen topic for the scholarship is “Exploring Integrated Beef Production Models.”

She is the secretary of Waterberg Women Farmers Association, and a member of the African Farmers Association of South Africa, and Bosveld Dorper Club.

Besides the achievements of individual women in farming across the continent, African women have made a great impact in agriculture through their work at the institutional and related leadership levels, including engaging in advocacy and taking initiatives aimed at boosting agriculture and food production.

They could do far more, given the needed resources and enabling environment. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization intimated that “if women were given the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase the yields on their farms by 20- 30%”.