Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau held a Virtual Roundtable recently with Women Ag Entrepreneurs from across Canada.

She says it was a great discussion that brought up a number of opportunities and challenges that exist for them:

"For example, the suggestion that childcare should be an expense, recognized as planning expense in some of our federal programs.
So that, when they hire temporary foreign workers, for example, they could also include in their crew people who would be in charge of
taking care of the kids."

Bibeau notes there are over 75,000 female farm operators representing over 28 per cent of all farm operators in
Canada.

It was just over a year ago that Bibeau announced Farm Credit Canada's Women Entrepreneur Program.

She says the original three-year plan was to invest 500 million in Women's Agriculture and Agri-Food Businesses.

"We have already invested more than a $1 billion dollars to 1400 women owned businesses."

She notes women remain underrepresented in the sector and continue to face significant barriers which is why the
Government is taking steps to promote and empower women entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector.

Information on Farm Credit Canada's Women Entrepreneur Program can be found here.