Gender Equality Commissioner Josie Christodoulou highlighted the importance of strengthening rural women and ensuring equal opportunities in agricultural development.
Speaking at an event organised by the Protoporia Women’s Club in Agros, titled “The Contribution of Women to Rural Areas”, she said that a total of 228 women had been trained in digital skills in 2025 and 2026. In addition, 85 women took part in seminars on women’s agricultural entrepreneurship.
Training programmes
The digital training programmes are being implemented through cooperation between the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, the Commissioner’s Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and other competent bodies. Their aim is to provide rural women with the tools to make better use of technology.
According to Christodoulou, the new skills can be used to promote products, build professional networks and claim more opportunities.
At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment is holding seminars titled “Women’s Agricultural Entrepreneurship” in mountainous and lowland areas. So far, 85 women have taken part in seminars in Agros, Kakopetria, Agios Theodoros in Larnaca and Kornos.
National strategy
The Commissioner stressed that substantially strengthening the position of rural women requires policies that respond to their actual living and working conditions. She also underlined that activities should take place in the communities themselves, noting: “we cannot design policies for rural women without listening to rural women themselves”.
“No policy for women without women.”
Christodoulou said that 2026, which the United Nations General Assembly has declared the International Year of the Woman Farmer, represents an opportunity for Cyprus to continue meaningful action towards gender equality and the empowerment of rural women.
The National Strategy for Gender Equality 2024-2026, as well as the new strategy for 2027-2029 that is being prepared, includes a dedicated thematic section titled “Gender and Rural Development”. Mainstreaming the gender dimension into agricultural policy includes, among other things, examining whether rural women have equal access to knowledge, funding and technology, equal opportunities to develop business activity, and meaningful participation in decision-making concerning the future of rural areas.
Heart of development
“Rural women are not on the margins of agricultural development but at its heart,” the Commissioner said, noting that they are producers, entrepreneurs and workers, while also contributing to the preservation of knowledge, tradition and community life.
As part of the upcoming activities, she announced that on 14 October the Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality and the Office of the Commissioner for the Development of Mountain Communities will organise a conference in Kyperounta dedicated to women farmers and rural women. The conference will focus on entrepreneurship in rural areas and sustainable development, the role of women in the new digital and green era, and the opportunities offered by rural areas to young women.
On 15 October, marking the International Day of Rural Women, the Commissioner’s Office will also launch its new campaign titled “Women’s Stories”. As part of the campaign, five women active in agricultural sectors, including viticulture and livestock farming, will share their personal experiences.
“The rural woman does not need to acquire a voice. She has a voice. What she needs is to be heard,” the Commissioner concluded.
Source: CNA
