“Supporting women in agriculture has been and will continue to be a key priority for me, my department and the government,” Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has said.
Marking International Women’s Day today (Friday, March 8), Minister McConalogue said that while progress is being made to drive gender balance, change is “not happening fast enough”.
The minister was speaking at a special event organised by Macra and the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) in support of Breast Cancer Ireland yesterday (Thursday, March 7).
The charity event hosted by ASA president, Niamh Bambrick and Macra president, Elaine Houlihan in Co. Laois focused on the theme “Resilient industry. Adapting to change.”
Women in agriculture
Addressing the event, the minister said: “Women are increasingly visible, taking on senior and leadership roles, advocating, educating and innovating on farms and in agri-business.
“This is evident in terms of improved participation and opportunities for women in the agri-food sector, but change is not happening fast enough.
“Change should be viewed as an opportunity for us to come together to be open to new ideas, embrace innovation and adapt to new and different ways of doing things.
“Such a collaborative approach will ensure the Irish agri-food sector remains strong, resilient and sustainable in the face of climate change and the food sustainability challenge long into the future.”
The minister highlighted that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027 placed particular focus on promoting the participation of women in the socio-economic development of rural areas, with special attention to farming.
For the first time, Ireland’s CAP strategic plan includes several measures to support greater equality, including a 60% grant rate under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) to fund investments by trade women farmers, he added.
The inclusion and promotion of women-only Knowledge Transfer (KT) groups, also within the CAP strategic plan, has improved the recording and reporting of gender data, the minister said.
“Our CAP strategic plan engagement with the CAP Consultative Committee included very positive engagement with the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group.
“I welcome the focus on gender issues now evident within the main farming organisations.
“There’s also hugely positive engagement with the Women in Dairy Group series and the Agri-Food Diversity and Inclusion Forum, who are all working together.
“We’re all working towards greater equity in the agri-food sector, and it’s only by working together that we can make progress,” Minister McConalogue told the charity event.
The minister said that there has been “considerable progress” in achieving the government’s target of at least 40% of female participation on state boards under his remit.
The new Agri-Food Regulator and Coillte have a 50/50 gender representation, while the boards of the Veterinary Council of Ireland and Teagasc have a 58% and 64% female representation, he said.
“At the time of my appointment, only two boards out of 12 had reached the 40% gender target, whereas now eight out of 13 have reached this target,” Minister McConalogue said.
“Boards need diversity to be effective,” the minister said, and added that the visibility of female leadership will “encourage more female participation at all levels in the sector”.
IFA
Meanwhile, the farm family and social affairs chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Teresa Roche has acknowledged the “important contribution” of women in agriculture.
Highlighting that “despite the important role they play, women farmers’ contribution has traditionally been understated”, the IFA’s farm family and social affairs chair said:
“It is so important for the future sustainability of farming and the wider agri-food sector that more women are empowered and supported to get involved in the sector.
“Rural women are an underutilised resource, and we need to introduce additional supports to encourage more women farmers to get involved.”
“There are a number of social and cultural barriers to women’s participation in agriculture that need to be addressed in order to [affect] change,” according to Roche.
“We need to increase women’s visibility within the sector to show younger women that there is a career for them in farming,” the IFA’s farm family and social affairs chair said.