How to expand your farm business into other avenues, the availability of female-size clothing in local co-ops and closed toilets at marts, were just some of the topics discussed at an event in Donegal this week.
The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) Donegal team organised two events this week – one on north Donegal and one in south Donegal – entitled ‘Ur Wan‘ – Understanding Rural Women in Agriculture Needs.
The 2020 Census of Agriculture in Ireland shows that women account for just 13% of all farm holders across the country.
The Census also pointed to the fact that 58,000 women existed within Irish farming without visibility or farm holder status.
Recognising the need to support female farmers is coming at an important time in Irish
agriculture.
Although current research shows that the number of women heading up farms is increasing in the US, it is showing a decline in Europe, including Ireland.
The Donegal events aimed to bring together women from the region to chat and discuss the importance of women in agriculture, along with a panel discussion.
Donegal south event
The event in Leghowney, Donegal featured panel contributions from Donegal ACRES Co-operation programme manager, Henry O’Donnell; agroforestry expert, Maureen Kilgore; Teagasc biodiversity expert Catherine Keena; and Inga Bock, Donegal Rural Recreation Officer.
The panel discussion was chaired by Gerard McDaid, lecturer at Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Donegal.
Attendees were first shown archive footage from Mullingar Mart in 1983, compiled by RTÉ, where farmers are the mart were asked about whether women would be up to the task of farming the same as men.
As you can imagine, the response from the all male attendance was an emphatic “No” and those at the mart at the time indicated that women were certainly valuable in the home, particularly to make the dinner.
While much has changed in those 40 years since, have some things changed at all? If you go to any mart across the country on any given day of the week these days, you may see more women than might have been seen in 1983, but the numbers would still be quite low.
One audience member told the gathering in Donegal that she knows of a lady who gives her livestock to a man she knows to take to the mart as she finds it too intimidating and claimed that the ladies’ toilet facilities at one mart are permanently closed.
Louise Price, a dry stone waller based in Donegal, who also had an information stand at the ‘Ur Wan’ event outlined that even little things can be a challenge for rural women, such as local co-ops and merchants only stocking men’s working gear, or men’s size working boots etc.
Other topics which were discussed were diversification and how often women can be responsible for another source of income from a farm enterprise such as food production, or agri-tourism.
Agroforestry expert Maureen Kilgore outlined the many benefits planting trees can have on not just a farm business, but on the environment as a whole.
She also stated that trees are “gender neutral ” and can benefit anyone regardless of their sex.
Water quality and hedgerows
Among the other exhibitors at the event were Hedgerows Ireland, Teagasc, ACRES Donegal, BirdWatch Ireland and Donegal Rural Recreational Trails office.
Far from being a task only reserved for men, and perhaps traditionally considered manual work more suited to that gender, Louise Price explained the tradition of dry stone wall building and the many benefits it can have for farms.
She provides workshops to anyone interested in the tradition of building such walls or restoring old or falling walls in fields.
Katie Smirnova and Anne Brown of Hedgerows Ireland outlined how small measures undertaken with hedges on a farm can yield big environmentally positive changes and tie in well to ACRES.
They outlined details of the invasive species landowners should look out for in hedges and the diseases that might threaten such an important eco-system for biodiversity and species such as birds and bees.
Trish Murphy, a water specialist working with ACRES Donegal provided information on the quality of our water and how it has changed over time and how making simple changes can result in an improved result.
Catherine Keena from Teagasc explained to the audience that when she started working in agriculture, concerns about climate change or the impact on the environment were not as prominent or as topical as they are today.
“I knew nothing about the environment or biodiversity, but nobody else did either, within Teagasc or in general I would say,” Keena said.
“That was in the 90s and I suppose there was a move from putting the silage pit on the side of a river to get rid of the effluent to then collecting it to avoid it going into the river.
“It is that stark, the changes that happened,” she added.
Keena outlined that when she first started working and advising farmers about the Farm Improvement Scheme, she was advising farmers to take out hedges and within a matter of months the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) was introduced advising farmers against taking out hedges.
“Are we surprised that farmers, and advisors and ourselves were confused? But policy changes, and I don’t like to be too critical {of the past] as we wanted food didn’t we?”
Gerard McDaid of ATU referenced the importance of the social aspect of women in agriculture engaging with and learning from each other and the importance of events such as that organised by ACRES Donegal.
Aileen Collery of ACRES Donegal said that often women don’t get the credit they deserve for the sheer number of tasks they do in a farm family, from rearing calves to managing the accounts.
She said she hoped the “conversation would continue” among women in agriculture far beyond the information events in Churchill and Leghowney.