Next week sees the annual Irish Farmers Journal and Irish Country Living Women & Agriculture conference taking place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island, Co Cork on Thursday 29 October.
The event, which is now in its 17th year, is kindly sponsored by FBD Insurance.
We are delighted to return to the south of Ireland this year and meet new and returning faces.
In this week's Irish Country Living, editor Ciara Leahy outlines the full programme for the conference with guest speakers and discussions taking place during the day.
It’s always a really positive day with a mix of thought-provoking discussion and entertainment thrown into the mix.
This year’s conference will touch on topics and issues that are at the centre of Ireland’s agricultural industry, as well as homes and rural communities.
Our speakers will generate debate and, as always, pay tribute along the way to the many and varied roles that are fulfilled by women in the agriculture industry.
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Farm Structure Survey 2023, the latest data that is available, women make up 34.1% of Ireland’s farming labour force, yet only 13.3% of farm holders are female, representing 17,519 women.
This marks modest progress from 11.9% in 2013, while the west of Ireland records the highest proportion of female farm holders at 13.9%.
The CSO figures also highlighted that women carry out 37% of family farm work, much of it unpaid, yet many report feeling they are not recognised as “real” farmers.
The United Nations has declared 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, being led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to recognise the critical contribution that women make to agriculture.
That acknowledgement doesn’t stop at the end of 2026, with women equally important as men in Irish agriculture.
The event is almost sold out with just a few tickets remaining.
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