UFU Women in Agriculture webinar series a success

The WIA initiative was created to recognise and celebrate women’s contribution to the industry and as a physical event could not be held this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the UFU hosted a series of virtual events across three evenings in April.

UFU rural affairs committee chair Jennifer Hawkes said: “We were delighted to be able to hold a virtual UFU WIA event this year. Women have always played a key role in farm businesses and the wider industry – often behind the scenes. The WIA webinar series brought together influential speakers from the industry to share their views and business knowledge to help empower our women working in the agricultural field.

“Across the three evenings, speakers shared their ideas and experiences, creating an inspirational platform for participants and reinforced the valuable contribution they make to a diverse industry where merit and talent are the key components of leadership.”

The focus of the UFU’s WIA webinars were resilience and resourcefulness, women working in the industry and business skills in agriculture.

“During the second WIA webinar, DAERA Minister Edwin Poots committed to considering a WIA taskforce, similar to that in Scotland where government aim to give women in farming access to the same development opportunities as men in this sector through training opportunities and funding. This is an extremely positive statement and the rural affairs committee look forward to engaging with the Minister and DAERA officials to make this a reality,” said the UFU rural affairs chair.

The UFU WIA webinar series saw the launch of Rural Support’s new service, ‘Life Beyond’. The WIA webinar series was the first fundraising effort for UFU president Victor Chestnutt’s chosen charity, raising a total of £440.

“Life Beyond will provide a range of bereavement support services and activities for the farming community in Northern Ireland with the aim of improving the mental, social and physical wellbeing of farm families who have been bereaved. This programme will be delivered in partnership between Rural Support and Embrace Farm,” said Mrs Hawkes.

The UFU would like to express their gratitude to everyone who helped make the virtual events a triumph.

Mrs Hawkes said, “I would like to thank NFU Mutual for their generous sponsorship for the WIA webinars, our chairperson throughout the webinars Nicola Weir and all of our speakers who with their individual stories, have inspired, motivated and empowered us. I would like to thank Food NI for their sponsorship of three locally produced food hampers won by Pamela Brown, Jayne Woodrow and Barbara Kerr.  Finally, to all of those who tuned in to the webinars and have supported our WIA initiative since the very beginning.”

The rural affairs committee hope to build on the success of the webinars next year and the WIA webinar videos are available to watch on the UFU YouTube channel. To donate to ‘Life Beyond’ visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ufusupportinglifebeyond.