Minister McConalogue announces supports to promote gender equality in farming

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue TD, today outlined a range of measures to support women’s participation in farming as part of the new CAP Strategic Plan. The package of measures includes: an increased rate of grant aid of 60% for women aged 41-55 years under Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS); women-only Knowledge Transfer (KT) Groups; and a call under the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) initiative for proposals to examine women’s participation in agriculture.

The new CAP Regulations place particular focus on promoting the participation of women in the socio-economic development of rural areas, with special attention to farming. The SWOT analysis in preparation for Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan identified gender inequality as a weakness, while the economic benefits of increasing female participation was identified as an opportunity.

Minister McConalogue commented,

“Gender equality is a priority for my Department, as well as being a cross-cutting objective of the forthcoming CAP. The contribution of women to agriculture is important and my Department has worked to design measures which will increase their participation in farming. Food Vision 2030, the agri-food sector’s new ten-year stakeholder strategy, also supports an enhanced role for women in the sector and recommends some further actions, including a national dialogue on women in agriculture. I have asked my officials to prioritise this dialogue for next year.”

Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett said,

“It is important that gender mainstreaming is integrated into policymaking both through specific CAP interventions, such as the 60% grant rate for qualified female farmers under TAMS, and also through all agriculture schemes. I am pleased that equality between women and men, which is a core principle of the European Union, is being given increased emphasis to ensure our rural areas flourish. I have met many wonderful and innovative female farmers around the country and I look forward to these measures being of great support to them and indeed to all female farmers."

Minister of State Martin Heydon T.D. said:

“Women have always been central to farm enterprises across the generations, but often in roles that are not visible or sufficiently recognized. These measures seek to correct that imbalance and ensure greater representation by women as farm holders and in decision making on farms”.

Note for Editor

1. Gender equality is a cross-cutting objective of the new Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) 2023-2027, a key objective of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and a priority for the Government. The new CAP Regulations place particular focus on promoting the participation of women in the socio-economic development of rural areas, with special attention to farming. Member States are required to strengthen their capacity in gender mainstreaming and in the collection of sex disaggregated data.

2. The CSO Labour Force Survey 2019 showed that 13% of workers in the primary agriculture, forestry and fishing sector were female. For 2020, the figure was 15%, the highest since 2010. The CSO’s 2016 Farm Structure Survey recorded 71,700 women working on farms, of which less than one quarter (16,100) were farm holders.

3. As young-trained farmers, trained women farmers up to the age 40 already qualify for an increased rate of grant aid of 60% under TAMS.

4. The new stakeholder strategy for the Irish agri-food sector, Food Vision 2030 (gov.ie - Food Vision 2030 – A World Leader in Sustainable Food Systems (www.gov.ie), recognises the important contribution of women to the sector's long-term sustainability and includes a number of actions to promote and improve gender balance at all levels, and proposes holding a national dialogue on women in agriculture.