Crusheen Farmer Hopes To Inspire Future Generations Of Women In Agriculture

I filled out the application process and it was you had to fill out your experience in

firemen, how you find firemen as a woman and also as well what you want to bring forward

for the next generation to come. So I had a vast experience where firemen are alongside

my brother Jerry in the dairy beef and free range eggs and also I have two lovely daughters

in which I want to pass on the passion to farming. So I was chosen as the woman for

farming in agriculture for 2026 as the face for the Department of Agriculture and it's a great

honor to be able to go out amongst the agriculture community and be there as the voice for women

and to hopefully instill confidence going forward for the next generation.

And is that that is your main goal is to show other women and not just to represent women

in agriculture, Karina but to show them that this is a career that they have you know that they

can be as good in as men and that they indeed should be in.

Oh well most definitely I'm part of the toilet discussion group with Chagas with Ian Bogler.

I sit in there and I listen to the talks about dairy. We go out to farm walks. I'm included

as a woman farmer and from gaining that experience and confidence from being around farmers,

I want to pass that on to other women that they too can be part of the farming community.

They too if they have the passion and the interest there is people out there willing to help

and also that a woman can stand on her own and farm alongside male counterparts and everyone

working together will be in the best interest for agriculture goals forward and to make sure

that we have a generation of farmers male and female coming forward.

It is often said Karina that women play a vital but under recognized role in farming.

Is that still the case to any degree today and if so what kind of challenges even if there

has been progression what kind of challenges do women and agriculture still face in 2026?

So over the years I suppose a lot of women wouldn't have been recognized on the farm even though

they would have been feeding the cows and they would have been doing a lot of the paperwork

but their names weren't on herd numbers. So the recognition would have been very small

for people on steps there would be 13.2% of women are recognized in Ireland at the moment even though

there is probably a higher percentage really farming. So the goal for the department is to get more

women recognized on the steps and on the paperwork in order they will get recognized for the work

that they are doing. So how do you think we can make agriculture more attractive to younger generations

of women? The Department of Agriculture have brought out 60% funding for capital investments

to make farm buildings to make different infrastructure on the farm more appealing for women

to be involved to help them with the funding so it's not seen as such a physical and labor intensive

job to be in. Clearly obviously men are relatively bigger than women and that is why a lot of women

was turned away from farming both there is apparent infarming for both men and women to work

alongside each other. This is clearly a proud moment for you for Claire as well you know representing

your local community and your gender on a national stage and hopefully it will go well few. How would

you view success at the end of this ambassadorial role Karina? Being involved at the present moment

bringing out to white students out to our farm and instilling the confidence in young women that

there is jobs in degree sector whether you're the farmer whether you're working in a co-op whether

you're the engineer behind designing the next infrastructure for the farm in regards robots,

grass measuring et cetera opening the eyes to the young girls in county Claire and nationwide

that they may then after chatting with me come into the farm that they will see there is jobs there

is livelihoods and there is a great sense of job satisfaction from being a farmer you get the

freedom of being able to be out and about in the fresh air while doing the work if you do have the

love and the passion for the farm. Well look we hope it is your time as ambassador it turns out to be

a very fruitful one because if so it would be very beneficial for women in agriculture and hopefully

in terms of attracting more women into the sector Karina Rosengrave the Claire-Based Ambassador

for the International Year of the Woman Farm for 2020-26. Thanks very much for joining us on the show.

Thank you very much.