Wednesday, 29 June 2022 10:55

DWN secures state funding

Written by  Jessica Marshall
Associate Agriculture Minister Meka Whaitiri says the Government is helping women to reach their farming leadership potential. Associate Agriculture Minister Meka Whaitiri says the Government is helping women to reach their farming leadership potential.

A Dairy Women’s Network (DWN) programme has been named as the recipient of two years of funding support from the Government.

The funding, which totals $473,261, comes from the Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund and will go towards the Farming for the Future Leader’s Programme.

“Supporting these women to reach their farming leadership potential will deliver long lasting economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits to New Zealand,” Associate Agriculture Minister Meka Whaitiri says.

The programme will pilot a programme of wrap-around services for women, developing training content and a central knowledge hub as well as providing coaching to support female business group leaders in the dairy sector.

“The members of the programme will create a positive impact that is far reaching, by providing channels to share solutions and innovations with their businesses, partners, farm teams, neighbours and communities,” says Whaitiri.

“The Government is committed to working with regional communities to help them reach their economic and social potential.

“These strong social connections and access to tools and support from this programme will help build resilience, both for these women and for their farming businesses,” Whaitiri says.

Jules Benton, chief executive of DWN, says the programme will empower farming women to create innovative solutions to a variety of challenges and issues facing farmers.

“But the truly exciting part of this programme is the ability of those who are part of it to share their learnings with their communities and the 11,000 DWN members,” says Benton.

She says the primary goal of the programme is to enable and empower DWN members to farm for the future so the sector, which she says is experiencing rapid change, can grow and adapt with a positive focus. “We encourage our members to challenge the status quo and this programme will allow, not only that, but an on-sharing of their experiences and knowledge to help others in the group drive change in their own environments, community and businesses,” Benton says.

“I truly believe that this professional development will lead to great things in our farming sector; creating knowledge, leadership and innovation to empower the industry and aid with decision making in the future.”

More like this

Bikinis in cowshed

OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content posted on social media and adult entertainment subscription site OnlyFans.

Editorial: Agri's mojo is back

OPINION: Good times are coming back for the primary industries. From sentiment expressed at Fieldays to the latest rural confidence survey results, all indicate farmer confidence at a near-record high.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter