3 minute read
Women to fore as Fieldays bounces back
The challenges facing rural women and the primary sector a whole were key themes as Fieldays 2021 returned to Mystery Creek.
With a record number of visitors on the Friday and second only to 2017 for overall attendance, Fieldays 2021 proved the event is back stronger than ever. Fieldays 2020 was an online event only, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Pent-up demand this year pushed attendance at Mystery Creek over the 4 days in June to 132,776, less than 1000 behind the biggest Fieldays to date, 2017, which had 133,588 visitors. On Friday June 18, attendance set a new 1-day record of 44,044 visitors. Introducing the event, James Allen, President of the National Fieldays Society, listed the significant challenges facing the primary sector – labour supply, environmental issues, greenhouse gases, drought and floods. “But the opportunities are even greater, and Fieldays is the one place where you can see those opportunities come to life,” he said. Helping support farmers to face these challenges, Farmlands hosted Toitū Envirocare in the Innovation Hub at Fieldays. A government-owned provider of environmental certification, Toitū Envirocare has launched its carbon programmes into the primary sector to allow pastoral farmers to gain Toitū carbonzero and Toitū carbonreduce certification for their on-farm emissions. Farmlands also hosted one of the showcase events at Fieldays 2021, Real Women Talk. Evolving from Farmlands’ travelling entertainment and trade show Ladies’ Night, Real Women Talk aims to highlight some of the tougher challenges and brighter successes that rural women have in common.
| Anika Moa and the Real Women Talk panellists celebrate a successful session.
Agri-tourism and rural women advocate Laura Koot
This was the event’s first time at Mystery Creek, having debuted at Agfest in November last year. The intimate Fieldays event, hosted by singer and presenter Anika Moa, focused on helping others to overcome adversity. It balanced stories across all aspects of rural life, included trialling innovative new practices on-farm, advocating for Māori wāhine, rural business and health and wellbeing. Associate Minister for Agriculture Meka Whaitiri, agri-businesswoman Traci Houpapa, farmer and governor Susan O’Regan, food-businesswoman Lisa Booth and agri-tourism and rural women advocate Laura Koot joined Anika on the panel. The speakers regaled the audience with narratives straight from their own experience of overcoming adversity. Traci Houpapa is one of the most influential agri-businesswomen in New Zealand. After growing up going to land meetings with her father, she has been the chair of the Federation of Māori Authorities (FOMA), which oversees scores of Māori business organisations, for more than 10 years. “People like us can do what we’ve done because other people have given us a hand,” she said. After her agri-tourism business, Real Country, took a hit from COVID-19, Laura Koot set up The Fairlight Foundation with a mission to advance more women in the agriculture industry. Laura echoed Traci’s sentiment on supporting others to achieve their goals. “To me, the definition of success has got absolutely nothing to do with what I accomplish and everything to do with how I help others accomplish,” Laura said. CEO and founder of Kete Kai, New Zealand’s most affordable food box company, Lisa Booth reminded the audience that it’s OK to make mistakes and fail occasionally and to continue to look outside the main production channels within the industry for opportunity. Equally as inspiring, Susan O’Regan used her experience as a solicitor, governor and farmer to transform her dairy farm, Judge Valley Dairies, into a sustainable operation focusing on maximising production while minimising the effects on the environment. Susan asked the audience to “look beyond what you see” and to ask the hard questions when facing challenges on and off-farm.
| The friendly crew in the Farmlands' marquee, and (right) Farmlands hosted several guests at the Real Women Talk event.
