Growing farming talent

Through its sponsorship of the annual Female Farmer of the Year Awards and in partnership with the national Department of Agriculture, TOTAL is recognising the contributions that female farmers are making towards poverty alleviation. By providing prize money for the award, TOTAL is also helping these women to grow their food gardens into commercially viable enterprises, establish food security and create jobs in their local communities.

This project was initiated by the national Department of Agriculture in 1999. The objective of the awards is to empower women in agriculture by recognising their contributions and increasing their visibility. The award is an instrument through which women's contributions to the fight against poverty can be recognised.

The annual award incorporates female farmers from all nine provinces, recognising the top producer in four categories including export markets, national markets, informal markets and household use. Local departmental officials identify and shortlist female farmers in each of these categories in their area and, together with representatives from TOTAL and other partners, assess them on a range of different criteria.

Provincial winners in each of the four categories compete for the top positions in the national leg of the competition, hosted by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Ms Lulu Xingwana, which takes place in Cape Town on 26 August 2008.

TOTAL South Africa Corporate Communications Manager Faye-Marie Cloete says, “These female farmers provide hope by fighting poverty.  One hopes that they will also serve as role models for many unemployed youth, who need to learn to make the most of the resources around them.  For TOTAL South Africa, supporting this cause provides an opportunity to invest in a range of social development areas including job creation and environmental conservation.” 

TOTAL has recognised the importance of the role of women in agriculture for sometime now, hence the company's support of the Female Farmer of the Year Awards since 1999. 

The overall winner of the 2007 Female Farmer of the Year Awards is the Ditubatse Business Enterprise Project which is a partnership between Ms Makgoro Mannya and Ms Kgwadu Ramokgopa from Limpopo Province. This project also won the Export Category.

The winners of the other three categories are:

Sonja Ferreira
National Markets Category
Western Cape Province

Nomathamsanqa Madliwa
Informal Markets Category
Eastern Cape Province

Roster Mathabela
Household Category
KwaZulu-Natal Province

Click here to read more about the 2007 winners

The Female Farmer of the Year Awards is a valuable project which makes an important contribution towards poverty alleviation and TOTAL is proud to support such an initiative.