Jury 2025

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, graduate of the National Agrarian University of Ukraine and Leibniz University of Hannover in Germany in the field of international agribusiness. Yuliya has about 15 years of experience in Ukrainian and international companies in agricultural marketing, communication and project management. Since 2016, she has been the Managing Director of the Ukrainian subsidiary DLG Ukraine and successfully developed several exhibition platforms for arable farming and potato production such as the International Field Days and Potato Day. Since 2022, Yuliya Bondarenko has been working for DLG Service on the development of new exhibition areas for vertical agriculture and new food systems.

As a journalist since 2011, I specialised in the agricultural press in animal production in 2018. Especially in the field, I value the exchange of experiences with farmers and technicians, both men and women. I engage all year round to represent their voices. For me, the promotion of women in agriculture is part of an egalitarian approach at the level of society and nations. 

Not born and raised on a farm, I became a farmer when moving to my husbands' farm. Nowadays farming is my passion and I see so many beautiful things in agriculture. Since times are changing, I see women playing a more and more vital role in agriculture - from being silent behind a man towards owning, running and being the face of their farm and being the thriving force in sustainable food production. We need more women in agriculture and food and have their voices heard

CV:

Judith de Vor is a dairy farmer from the Netherlands. Together with her husband and 3 kids – as a fifth generation – they continue their love for animals and the land while raising cows. They are working in a sustainable and regenerative way. From open farm days to school classes, agricultural organizations and policymakers - thousands of people are welcomed on the farm each year. Judith is an advocate for agriculture, a member of the Global Farmer Network,  part of TeamAgroNL and a Nuffield farming scholar. She promotes Dutch food and agriculture, is a columnist and speaks at several events all over the world. With a background in political science, agricultural policies have her interest. She is also an agricultural social innovator. Judith is supporting other farmers with new ideas, leadership and personal development.

Despite their significant representation, women often face challenges such as limited access to land, financial resources, and education. Addressing these barriers is essential to unlocking their full potential and ensuring a more equitable and productive agricultural sector. As the global demand for sustainable and resilient food systems grows, so does the need for greater recognition and empowerment of women in the industry. It is a time to call for a strong execution to recognize women in AG to create a role model and networking platform to inspire our young generations. 

CV:

May holds a PhD in Biotechnology from Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. She began her career in Monsanto to guide and lead the quality, then she was the Executive Director of the regional seed association namely the Asia and Pacific Seed Alliance (APSA) where she had built a strong network with multi- stakeholders in the seed supply chain in both public and private sectors. Her expertise is in seed policy advocacy and capacity building programs on plant variety protection and international seed movement. Her current role at East-West Seed is to guide and monitor stakeholder engagement, policy and regulatory update, strengthening public relations and promoting the company's position and mission on serving smallholder farmers with innovative seeds and sustainable agricultural practices.   
 

LaKisha Odom works at the intersection of sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in agriculture, focusing on innovative solutions for sustainable food production and economic viability for producers. Often one of the few in key discussions who looks like her, she believes diversity drives innovation. Her passion is creating inclusive spaces where all voices contribute to addressing global challenges like climate change, population growth, and food security. At the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), she leads DEI efforts and research programs that support regenerative farming, healthier food access, and diverse farmer adoption of sustainable practices.

These women around me motivated me to start Women in Ag Magazine, sharing their stories. In a positive way, I want to share their knowledge and experiences, inspiring other women in the sector to take steps, implement ideas and bring our sector to life.

When I was a little girl, I witnessed women mostly mothers engaged in tilling their own small piece of land in order to augment family’s income. Other women undertake farm related activities such as value-adding processing their farm produce to have food/delicacies and/or selling their excess farm produce around the barangay. In most cases, women are usually frontline in planting rice manually, maintaining the fields (pulling weeds, repairing paddies), harvesting, drying the grains and sometimes manually pounding the palay to have the clean rice. These farming activities seems very hard and full of drudgery; but it is an alternative to boost family income and provide fresh and nutritious foods for their children.

I pursued agricultural engineering in college which is one of the priority courses for scholarship with the thought that I can be of help to farmers particularly women to have the chance to enjoy farm works by making easy it an easy job and profitable. 

As a practicing agricultural engineer, I observed that there are more women in agriculture before when there was less machinery utilized than these days where most farming operations are mechanized. I had deduced that most women cannot operate the machinery thus they are displaced in the operations. With this scenario, there is a need to develop gender-friendly machinery and train such women on mechanized farming to cope up with the change in technology. The creation of the Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering (BAFE) slowly contributed in transforming Philippine agri-fisheries sector to modernized farming system. The BAFE, considered as the engineering arm of the Philippine Department of Agriculture, lead the crafting of the National Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Plan which is the basis for the infrastructure and machinery interventions by government. The plan considered gender sensitiveness in its machinery components’ design, fabrication, operation and maintenance. Hence, this gives equal chances to all gender where we can realized the unique roles and contributions of women in pushing for sustainable development. As the Assistant Director of BAFE, I ensure that women (particularly engineers) can have equal opportunity with male counterparts as we consider competency and job performance as major criteria. This strategy has impact on more women pursuing agricultural engineering.

If more women are involved in agriculture, their awareness of the nation's contribution will be raised and gender norms and stereotypes will be broken down. A higher number of women in agriculture would lead to higher productivity, a reduction in the gender gap in the sector and greater gender balance, especially in rural areas. Once women are more involved in agriculture and run it like a business, they own and have control over resources such as land, credit, inputs and other innovations. Moreover, women have a natural strength that facilitates access to markets for agricultural products. Women are always innovating, so a higher proportion of women would encourage the creation of rural women's organisations or platforms such as Women in Ag where achievements, successes and concerns can be voiced.
It is important to promote women and their achievements because it opens the doors for many women to do amazing things to rise above gender norms and shine in the world. Promoting women spurs them to do better because their work and efforts are appreciated.

CV:

Sheila Zulu is an agronomist and agricultural solutions specialist working for AGCO Corporation at the AGCO Future Farm in Zambia. She is also a certified agronomy trainer and a public speaker who is passionate about raising awareness about farming as a business and other interventions that help develop farmers' capacities.

She specialises in crop production, crop nutrition, crop protection, harvesting and storage techniques. She has more than 15 years of experience in practices and programmes aimed at developing best agricultural practices to improve the profitability of agriculture and safeguard farmers' livelihoods.

Sheila is a member of the Advisory Board of the Alliance for Modernising African Agri-food Systems and a member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE).

Sheila has previously worked in the agricultural insurance industry, in the seed industry with strong involvement in seed production and marketing, and in agricultural conservation programmes for smallholder farmers.

Academically, she holds an MSc degree in Agricultural Science and Production Systems from Harper Adams University (UK), a BTech degree in Agricultural Management from the University of South Africa, a National Diploma in Agricultural Crop Science from the Natural Resources Development College and an Insurance Diploma from the Zambia Insurance Business College. Sheila has completed courses in conservation agriculture and tillage techniques, seed inspection training, farm management information systems at BayWa and tractor driving and operation under the AGCO mechanisation training programme.