Delivered the II Women Agro Awards

Blanca Torrent, Grupo Carinsa, Greencobi, Eloy Requena and Úrsula Sánchez strengthen their visibility and empowerment with the II Women Agro Awards.

With these five entities and professionals, three Autonomous Communities, Andalusia, Catalonia and Extremadura are represented, with clear examples of empowerment and professionalism of Agro Women, and that during a whole year they will become the best examples of the path where the sector should work private and public in favor of agro-professional women.

Seven Agromarketing and eComercio Agrario, congregated yesterday more than 200 people in the National Association of Agricultural Engineers (ANIA), in the act of delivery the II Women Agro Awards, awards that are part of the set of actions of the Woman Agro Project launched by both entities in 2017, and that in this second edition they have been sponsored by Cajamar, Onubafruit, Compo Expert and MSD Animal Health, as entities that are committed to the equality of agro-professional women, and where the main agri-food regions have also been represented, through the 18 nominations that have participated.

Agro Woman Project

The day began with the welcome of the moderators, Luz Sánchez-Mellado, writer and journalist for El País and Pablo Rodríguez Pinilla, general director of Onda Agraria, who gave way to Alfonso García Puertas, Member of the Board of Directors of ANIA. In his inauguration speech, García Puertas has valued projects such as Agro Woman, highlighting the commitment of this entity to all training and recognition projects where women are protagonists, such as the one that had gathered us this time.

Next, Gissele Falcón, General Director of Seven Agromarketing, has taken the floor and announced that the National Forum for Agro-Professional Women, in its fourth edition, will take place next June in Valencia. “The Agro Woman project advances, and adds actions. In addition to the Forum and the Awards, two new initiatives are added that will begin to be developed this year: the Agro Women Spaces, spaces for the formation and transmission of knowledge, promotion of talent, visibility of rural women, bases for the inspiration of women women farmers, fishermen and ranchers; and CIT Agro (Science-Engineering-Technology), a new line of action with which we want to give a boost to university careers related to agricultural engineering, but not forgetting the promotion of cooperativism, equality and teamwork ”.

Ownership is the key to visibility

As a prelude to the presentation of the Awards, the Tertulia took place: Undertaking in Empty Spain: a challenge for Agro Women, where Lourdes Zuriaga, president of APAE, participated; María Gafo Gómez ‐ Zamalloa, Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission; Teresa López, President of Fademur and María Ángeles Rosado, Head of Depopulation and Women in the Executive Committee of Asaja Cuenca.

In this challenge of Agro Women and of reversing the tendency of Empty Spain, achieving ownership in farms and livestock seems to be the key to achieving their visibility, their empowerment and to give rural women to rural women professionalized

And although the Law on Shared Ownership has been in force since 2011 in Spain, it has not had the practical effects sought with it. According to Teresa López, president of Fademur, “only slightly more than 600 women are registered under the regime of shared ownership in farms and livestock in Spain, and this slows down any development and visibility of their role within the agri-food sector.” In this context, Teresa López has stressed that ownership is the key to the visibility of rural women, and needs real and concrete measures and with a budget to be effective.

A clear example has been presented by Mª Ángeles Rosado, Head of Depopulation and Women in the Executive Committee of Asaja Cuenca. As a farmer, until 2016 she did not agree to the shared ownership of her farm, so she could not manage procedures of the CAP, nor carry out administrative procedures: “If we are not holders, we cannot be members of cooperatives, nor be present in the meetings, or access positions in the Management Board, participate in decision-making … therefore, we need a national regulation that really develops that law if we want to take the first step towards empowerment and visibility. But at the same time, we need services in the rural environment to guarantee the same opportunities to our children as those who live in the urban environment. ”

And this is the first step that rural women must take to achieve that professionalization and thus set population in the rural world and reverse the trend of empty Spain, common in Europe as noted by María Gafo, Directorate General Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission: “The great difference of Spain with respect to other countries is that here this problem has jumped into the political sphere. Thanks to this, today there is a clear will in the European Commission to achieve real equality for women, and in fact, equality strategists are being prepared that will affect various areas of community policy, ”he announced.

In this context, Lourdes Zuriaga, president of APAE, recalled that today the model of rural women is very different from years ago: “Today we have prepared women who want to live in rural areas, but need services such as health or education, so limiting your needs to connectivity would simplify this issue a lot. We need a serious State Pact, with measures that adapt to the rural environment and for this, we must ask women what they need to undertake, they are the ones who must make those decisions, because we need the rural environment, without rural means there is no future and without women there is no rural environment ”.

 

The gender perspective, a matter of state

Begoña Suárez Suárez, Deputy Director General for Entrepreneurship, Equality in Business and Collective Bargaining for Women, the Institute for Women and Equal Opportunities (IMIO), of the Ministry of Equality, has been responsible for closing the act in a clear support of this institution to the Agro Woman Project. In his speech he has highlighted the need for all institutions, not only those of equality, to incorporate the gender perspective in their policies. “As long as there are stereotypes, we will place ourselves in different areas, they will continue to condition us and make us unequal. Fighting against them is essential, and even more so in the rural world, where stereotypes are accentuated. Therefore, if we want to reverse this situation, we have to know what are the barriers of women, those that put us and those that we impose ourselves, in order to be able to adopt measures, but in all areas, in all institutions, not only in that have equality competencies. ” In this sense, Suárez Suárez has added that from an office it is very difficult to design policies, so they open the doors of the Women’s Institute to listen to the needs of the agricultural woman, and because in addition, the success of one is the success of all.

 Awards ceremony II Women Agro Awards

Once the Tertulia ended, the ceremony of the II Women Agro Awards took place, some awards whose jury’s decision has not been revealed until the moment of its celebration. In total, there have been 18 nominations presented in this second edition of the Awards, all of which stand out for their professionalism and for their work in favor of the empowerment of agro-professional women, promoting equality policies in the agri-food sector.

Thus, the II Woman Agro Prize, in the category of Women, went to Blanca Torrent, General Director of Torrent Olives. The jury has awarded Blanca Torrent for strengthening an important gender equality policy in the company, promoting the presence of women at all levels of the organization, and promoting numerous initiatives for the empowerment of women in the agri-food sector in society Cordoba.

The II Woman Agro Prize in the Entrepreneurship category went to Grupo Carinsa, the CEO, Vanesa Martínez, collecting the prize. The jury has valued the work of Grupo Carinsa, thanks to the determination and entrepreneurial nature of its two top managers, visible through Vanesa Martínez.

Then, the II Women Agro Awards in the Company category was delivered, which was for Greencobi, a company dedicated to the production, handling and marketing of fruit and vegetable products, highly aware of the environment, and with a clearly exporting vision to the main EU countries. Its manager Gabriela Escobar was in charge of collecting the recognition. This fruit and vegetable producer and marketer company, located in Almería, has 396 workers, of which 333 women are (84.1%) and 63 men (15.9%). In addition, Greencobi develops programs to welcome and incorporate women in vulnerable situations, equality plans and conciliation measures.

Eloy Requena, director of Production and Research of Continental Plants, received the II Woman Agro Prize in the category of Man, recognizing the jury his commitment to equality, throughout his career within the company, encouraging women to occupy positions of greater responsibility As head of the company, he has promoted the incorporation of women in a massive way in the tasks of the field, traditionally carried out by men. Currently, women have an increasing weight in the company as a whole: 98 women and 67 working men (2018).

Finally, the Agro Woman Prize was awarded in the Youth category. The latter was for Úrsula Sánchez, cattle owner and owner of Finca La Marina, and member of the Coop. Our Mrs. Del Prado, and Cooperatives Agro-alimentary of Extremadura. The jury has wanted to recognize the preparation of this young Extremadura cattlewoman in recent years, being a clear example of generational relief and how sustainability and innovation should go hand in hand in the agri-food sector.

The whole day was followed through social networks and live broadcasting on Streaming. Under the #mujerAgro hashtag, the second Trending Topic was reached in Madrid, with more than 1,100 total tweets, more than 3,200,000 hits on Twitter, placing the @mujerAGRO account for the first time in the TOP 10 of the accounts with the greatest impact on the hashtag with +120,000 impacted accounts.