The drive for female applicants for the 2019 Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program began on International Women’s Day, March 8.

The NFF is committed to seeing more women represented in key-decision making roles.

“Women have been the pillar of Australia’s food and fibre production since farming began in this country.

"Over generations, in line with societal change, women have forged careers in all agriculture-related fields from agronomy and education to finance and marketing,” NFF president Fiona Simson, said via a press release.

“However, in the senior executive and board level ranks of many of the organisations I observe, there remains a lack of female voices.

“In fact, women comprise 41 per cent of the agricultural workforce but only 18 per cent of management roles and 2.3 per cent of CEO positions.”

The NFF aims to double the number of women in agricultural management roles by 2030.

Injecting the perspectives of females to the forums where strategic decisions were made was vital to the future growth of the industry, Ms Simpson said.

For six months, selected participants will work with mentors to develop skills and networks. They will also take part in a two-day leadership retreat in Canberra.

To be eligible for applicants must be 25 years or over.

For full guidelines and criteria visit farmers.org.au/campaign/diversity.

Applications are now open and will close on March 25, 2019.

The 2019 Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program partners include: AgForce, AgriFutures, Australian Agricultural Company, Australian Meat Processor Corporation, Bayer, Coles, Consolidated Pastoral Company, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Landmark, National Farmers’ Federation, NSW Farmers, NuFarm, Prime Super, Rabobank, Rimfire Resources, RuralCo, Rural Bank, Syngenta, Telstra and WFI.