AGRI Diversity

Project Highlights

The National Women in Agriculture and Agri-Food Network Project is committed to fostering the advancement of women in agriculture by addressing critical barriers and creating opportunities for leadership development. Here are some of the main components and goals of the project:

National Women in Agriculture Network:

• Developing an Action Plan in collaboration with regional/provincial organizations.
• Establishing mission, vision, and values statements to guide the network.
• Setting short and long-term objectives to achieve 30% leadership representation by 2030.
• Implementing an interim governance structure to guide decision-making until a formal board is established.
• Engaging stakeholders through a series of webinars to validate the Action Plan and gather feedback.

Research and Surveys:

• Marking the 10th anniversary of the Supporting the Advancement of Women in Agriculture (SAWA) initiative by updating and distributing a national survey.
• Conducting focus groups and key informant interviews to validate the survey results.
• Publishing a report comparing findings from 2015 and 2025, with actionable recommendations for future progress.

Networking and Professional Development:

• Facilitating regional and community networking events to connect women in agriculture.
• Providing funding and resources for local groups to support professional development activities.
• Developing manuals and guidelines to help community leaders organize successful events.

Knowledge Mobilization:

• Ensuring that research findings, the Action Plan, and all related activities are communicated effectively to industry stakeholders and the public.
• Utilizing social media, articles, infographics, presentations, media interviews, white papers, and op-eds to raise awareness and share progress.

Read more on how to organize your event and all the frequently asked questions. 

Women play an important role in Canadian agriculture. Women working in the primary agriculture sector occupy positions in every industry from beef to beekeeping, from entry-level workers to farm owners.

But women have a bigger role to play. They make up 50 per cent of the general population, but only 30 per cent of the total agricultural workforce. And when we look at the proportion of women who go on to assume leadership roles, it is much smaller than the proportion of men who do so.

When women are not represented at the leadership and decision-making level, it hurts them and it hurts the entire industry. Numerous studies show that increasing gender diversity improves productivity, profitability, and retention. For the agriculture sector, which faces significant and increasing labour challenges in the coming years, increasing the proportion of women in the workforce at every level is crucial to success.

Promote women leaders in the workplace.

Strong leadership is essential to a thriving agricultural business. But many qualified and experienced women are not being given the support and recognition they need to assume leadership roles. As a result, women are underrepresented at the leadership level in agricultural businesses.

This doesn't just have consequences for the women themselves. The issue negatively impacts the entire agriculture sector, which needs strong leadership and diverse perspectives to enhance its profitability and competitiveness. In general, greater workplace diversity improves productivity and worker retention, and women-led companies tend to outperform the average financially.

Agricultural businesses need to do a better job of identifying, supporting, and promoting women with leadership potential. Addressing the issue begins with a recruitment process that encourages and values women applicants, and policies and processes that make training and advancement opportunities available to women employees.

Attract more women to your agricultural board.

Research shows that more women than men enroll in post-secondary education and participate in leadership programs, yet they are still underrepresented at the board level. As a result, women who are experienced, educated, committed, and have a valuable contribution to make are not getting the opportunity to make their voices heard. 

This situation not only prevents women from achieving their full potential, it also diminishes the effectiveness of agricultural leadership as a whole. Boards with a more equal mix of genders are likely to make better decisions, achieve higher financial returns, and attract a wider range of talent.

To achieve greater gender diversity, boards must look at their current procedures and policies with a view to making them more inclusive of and welcoming to women candidates. By examining the codes of conduct, recruitment and selection processes, and other key elements of governance, organizations can start to build a more diverse and impactful board.

Best-Practice Guide to Enhancing Board Diversity
CAHRC has developed a free best-practice guide for industry association leaders, including CEOs, presidents, executive directors, and the board executive.

The guide includes policy templates, checklists, and step-by-step best practices for benchmarking and improving the inclusiveness of your board.

CAHRC supports workplace diversity by developing practical tools designed to help agricultural employers become an inclusive, supportive employer of choice.

The AGRI HR Toolkit addresses the unique needs of the agriculture industry and promotes an inclusive and diverse workplace environment. Based on extensive industry research and field testing, the toolkit includes everything agricultural employers need to improve their people-management skills and develop key resources to help them find, retain, and support employees.

Learn how to:

• Create a more accepting workplace
• Avoid discrimination and legal issues
• Attract a wider range of job applicants
• Develop a diversity program
• Identify hidden biases in the workplace

CAHRC commissions and contributes to reports and discussion papers that further the conversation about inclusion and diversity in agriculture. Publications include:

A Way Forward on Diversity and Inclusion
In October 2018, CAHRC hosted a forum to build on industry-wide conversations about increasing inclusion and diversity in Canadian agriculture. This discussion paper summarizes the recommended actions from this meeting.

Success in Agriculture: A Gendered Perspective of Social Networks
This study examines the social networks of individuals within the agriculture sector specifically as a way of understanding how social connections inform career progression.

Supporting the Advancement of Women in Agriculture: Needs Assessment
This report examines and addresses critical barriers to advancement facing women in the agriculture sector.

Options and Opportunities for Attracting Non-Traditional Workers to the Agricultural Industry (Report 1 of 3)
This report investigates opportunities and barriers to participation among three traditionally under-represented populations in the agricultural workforce. This report examines innovative approaches to increase agricultural employment among under-represented labour sources through an examination of 14 success case studies, and identifies common success criteria evident across 10 case studies. This report summarizes the activities associated with the pilot projects for increasing agricultural labour force participation among under-represented groups.

New Opportunities for Expanding the Agricultural Workforce Pilot Projects with Under-represented Groups (Report 2 of 3)
This report examines innovative approaches to increase agricultural employment among under-represented labour sources through an examination of 14 success case studies, and identifies common success criteria evident across 10 case studies.

Addressing Barriers to Agricultural Employment and Expanding the Agricultural Workforce Pilot Projects (Report 3 of 3)
This report summarizes the activities associated with the pilot projects for increasing agricultural labour force participation among under-represented groups.

CAHRC recommends these resources to help agricultural employers and stakeholders learn to become more supportive of diversity in the sector.

Welcome to Black Canada: How to Take Action
This list of resources includes information and activities for people who want to learn more about the Black experience and actively support Black people in their communities.

Anti-racism Resources
This list includes articles, podcasts, videos, books, films, and social media accounts that serve as a resource to white people who wish to deepen their anti-racism work.

Structural Racism in the Food System: Perspectives from Black Women Scholars
Hosted by the Inter-Institutional Network for Food, Agriculture, and Sustainability (INFAS), this webinar features three Black women scholars from historically Black colleges and universities describe their unique perspectives on the issue of structural racism in the food system.

Reconciliation Canada
Born from the vision of Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, Gwawaenuk Elder, Reconciliation Canada is leading the way in engaging Canadians in dialogue and transformative experiences that revitalize the relationships among Indigenous peoples and all Canadians. Website includes reports, videos, and more.

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
This website contains statements, documents and other resources collected during a multi-year process to listen to Survivors, communities and others affected by the Residential School system.

The Together We Grow Coalition
Comprised of 45 agriculture industry, agribusiness, education and government members, the coalition was formed in 2016 with the goal of growing a diverse pipeline of talent—now and into the future—for the U.S. Agriculture industry.

“We are committed to working together to build a modern workforce with the capacity to meet the needs of a growing world. We will set an industry standard that values inclusiveness and diversity to ensure that the sector realizes its full potential.”

—Joint National Industry Statement on Commitment to Inclusion and Diversity

First Nations and Indigenous people history in agriculture and agri-foods today has existed long before Canada confederated. There has always been a relationship between Indigenous people and the land. Indigenous people harvested plants, ranched livestock, and cultivated plants to create medicines and design companion planting systems like the Three Sisters[1]. Canada’s agriculture and agri-foods industry is critical to the sustainability and independence of the country, and of growing importance to Indigenous communities nationwide.

As part of our mandate to support human resource development in the sector, CAHRC continues to work on providing research, tools and understanding to support an equitable, inclusive and diverse workforce in primary agriculture.

An example of this work includes exploring with the Indigenous community ways to increase Indigenous participation in the agriculture population as operators and through employment. Another example includes conducting research focused on Indigenous farm management training to further support the development of agriculture and agri-food initiatives.

CAHRC continues to build relationships with Indigenous communities and producers through these initiatives.

Growing Security: Summary of Agriculture and Agri-foods Zoom Discussions

[1] Three Sisters companion planting – is a companion planting system where beans, corn and squash are planted together – each helps the other to survive. www.nativeseeds.org/blogs/blog-news/how-to-grow-a-three-sisters-garden

Supporting Canada's non-traditional agricultural labour sources.

Canada's agriculture sector faces unique challenges that impact its ability to attract and retain enough workers. In 2014, 26,400 jobs went unfilled in Canada's agriculture sector, costing $1.5 billion in lost revenues. The situation will worsen between now and 2025, by which time the agriculture sector's labour gap is expected to double.

With a growing need for labour of every type, including entry-level workers, managerial staff, specialists, and owner-operators, the sector must explore new options. By considering non-traditional labour sources and taking steps to support non-traditional labour in the workplace, the agriculture sector can improve its ability to find and keep the workers needed to support continued growth.

To this end, CAHRC commissioned a series of research reports that examine the potential of non-traditional labour sources, which include Indigenous people, immigrants, and persons with disabilities. The research explores some of the barriers that prevent these groups from joining the agricultural labour force, and identifies innovative approaches, new opportunities, and success criteria for increasing participation.

Options and Opportunities for Attracting Non-Traditional Workers to the Agricultural Industry

This report consolidates data research, focus-group findings, and an environmental scan of existing programs and services to identify Indigenous people, immigrants, and persons with disabilities as three sources of non-traditional labour with the potential to make a contribution to the agriculture sector labour force.

The report also identifies barriers to employment and options for addressing these barriers, and includes an overview of the input provided by focus groups conducted with employment services agencies that work with each of the three non-traditional labour sources.

New Opportunities for Expanding the Agricultural Workforce: Pilot Projects with Under-Represented Groups

Building on the research conducted in the March 2015 report, CAHRC commissioned three pilot project plans to expand the participation of Indigenous people, immigrants, and persons with disabilities in the agricultural workforce.

This report examines innovative approaches to increase agricultural employment among these labour sources through an examination of 14 success case studies, and identifies common success criteria evident across 10 case studies.

All 14 case studies, along with the case study interview template, are also included in this report.

Addressing Barriers to Agriculture Employment and Expanding the Agriculture Workforce Pilot Projects

This final report summarizes the activities associated with the pilot projects for increasing agricultural labour force participation among Indigenous people, immigrants, and persons with disabilities.

The contents include a summary of the research, consultation, industry validation, success case study development, and success criteria identification. The process for recruitment and selection of pilot project sites and the development of a hiring guide for target labour sources is also described.

The report includes an interim summative evaluation of the pilot projects, including outcomes, applicant perspectives, strengths and challenges of the projects, and lessons learned.

Summative Evaluation Report of the Researching Barriers to Agricultural Employment Pilot Projects

This report delivers a complete summative evaluation to assess the impact of the planning, implementation, and communication of the pilot projects.

The report also evaluates the performance of the pilot projects against intended goals and metrics, including the number of new hires from the three non-traditional labour sources targeted, including Indigenous people, immigrants, and persons with disabilities.