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Attitudes are changing within the NI agriculture industry about the role that women can have in running farms, DAERA Minister Edwin Poots has said.
In his last public event as Agriculture Minister, the DUP politician opened the Ulster Farmers Union’s Women In Agriculture conference in Cookstown on Wednesday.
“I believe that opportunities for women in agriculture are so much greater than they were when I was a kid. Back then, there was a lot of heavy, physical work and it was always focused towards men,” he said.
Minister Poots said advances in technology have changed this and he suggested that the skills which are required for managing a modern farm are more often found among women than men.
“On my own family farm, my mother always had a much greater attention for detail than my father and me. That is so, so important for both plant and animal husbandry,” he said.
He pointed out that over half of students enrolled in some agriculture courses at CAFRE Greenmount are female and he has noticed more young women attending agricultural events, such as sales at livestock marts.
Most importantly, Minister Poots said older farmers were now much more open to a daughter taking over the farm, and the long-standing tradition of only the oldest son inheriting the land was changing.
“Looking back, it was always expected that the son would come home to the farm and it was a huge disappointment if they didn’t. I think there were many young men who were forced into farming because that was the expectation,” he said.
“The opportunities that now exist [for women in farming] are fantastic. I think there has been a real mindset change among men. They are happy for anyone to come home to farm,” he added.
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