The Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group (WASG) has joined forces with the University of Limerick (UL) to launch the first national farm inclusivity survey.
According to the WASG, diversity and inclusivity are still “major” challenges for the agriculture sector.
CSO figures show that the number of women officially farming in their own right increased by 1% over the last decade.
With the upcoming policy supports in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023, the survey will help serve to benchmark the progress of the policy measures and provide an indication of the challenges the farm community faces in terms of inclusivity.
Farm inclusivity survey
Chair of the WASG, Hannah Quinn-Mulligan, said:
“Just 13,000 women are ‘officially’ farming and in receipt of farm payments in Ireland. Yet, we also know from CSO figures that 70,000 women work on farms every day.”
“The survey is completely anonymous and takes less than five minutes to complete. We hope that both men and women will take part because their input will be invaluable in helping to shape future policy.”
The survey is being undertaken with the collaboration of Mary Curtin, a PhD scholar at the University of Limerick.
She is currently examining female farm ownership from a legal, financial, social and cultural standpoint.
Mary also farms with her father and is passionate about ensuring the work of women on farms is recognised.
“I am delighted to be working in collaboration with the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group in bringing about change,” she said.
Further information:
To find a link to the survey, see this link.
In other news, just 53 women across four counties took part in the Knowledge Transfer (KT) tillage scheme.
That is according to information the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group (WASG) received from a Freedom of Information request from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The DAFM provided the group with the following county breakdown:
- Laois – 30;
- Kilkenny – 18;
- Kildare – 4;
- Carlow – 1.
The group said that women made up just over 3,000 of the 19,000 participants in KT.
It stressed that the “tiny” proportion of women represented in tillage farming is a “serious” concern for the sector’s inclusivity.
