Friday 15 October marks international day of rural women, where we recognise the role women play in rural communities and the contributions they make.

This year, the theme is 'Rural women cultivating good food for all'.

Speaking on international day of rural women, chair of the Women in Agriculture Stakeholder Group (WASG) Hannah Quinn-Mulligan said that women farming in Ireland need more recognition.

This 'not-seen not-heard' position on the value of women’s contribution to farm work needed to be called to a halt.

According to CSO statistics, 70,000 women are working on farms every day in some capacity and over 40,000 of these are married to farmers, which are separate to the roughly 16,000 women who own farms and are in receipt of farm payments.

Ownership

“Less than 20% of landholders worldwide are women and Ireland is particularly poor – with just 10.7% of Irish farms in female ownership,” Quinn-Mulligan said.

“We also have the fifth-lowest number of female farm managers in the EU.

“There are roughly 130,000 family farms in the country with 70,000 women working across them and yet just one half of the family farm unit is getting recognition for their work.

“WASG has been very clear in outlining several Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) suggestions to ensure that the work of women is recognised and valued.

“When is the Department of Agriculture going to sit up and take responsibility for ensuring that inclusivity is given priority status in the next CAP and call a halt to the ‘invisible’ labour women have been putting into farms for decades?” Quinn-Mulligan concluded.