Livpreet Singh Grewal - Success as a woman farmer in Australia

To succeed as a woman farmer is difficult and to succeed as a woman migrant farmer is commendable. This is what Livpreet Kaur Grewal exemplifies. Livpreet is tasting success as a young woman farmer in Australia.

Livpreet who is only 19 years old works hard at her family-owned farm in Kinglake, Australia where she does everything -driving a tractor, sowing seeds, harvesting and giving a hand in picking, packing and dispatching.

Livpreet is an example of the new breed of women farmworkers who are ready to run a farm and do all the required hard work. Livpreet is part of the group of women farmers who are smashing gender stereotypes and are keen to pursue farming as a profession.

At 19 years of age, she now drives a tractor, carries out sowing, harvesting and helps the crew with picking, packing and dispatching.

She represents the new breed of women farmworkers who are capable and are not afraid to dig their heels in the swamp or get their hands dirty in running a farm. Livpreet says, "There is nothing a woman can't do if she is determined,” talking about her foray into farming.

Interestingly women form an estimated 32 percent of the agricultural workforce in Australia. According to a 2016 census report, 11 percent of these women farmers are from culturally different backgrounds.

Family profession

Livpreet belongs to a family that has been doing farming for generations. Her parents continued to pursue farming when they migrated to Australia 30 years ago.

Livpreet says that she has been on the farm since childhood and has grown up seeing her father working on the farm. She with her three sisters do different tasks on the farm including driving a tractor.

Educaţie

Livpreet has just completed the first year of her Bachelor’s degree in farming and is able to implement what she has learned in the family farm where she spends the entire day in the 220-acre farm situated in Kinglake town which is 60 kilometers away from Melbourne.

She feels her formal education is helping her try out new ideas in farming and implement them on the field. “You learn at the university and then you come home and implement that knowledge and the new techniques in the field. It also helps you to learn and embrace new technologies and stay up to date,” she says.

Defying stereotypes

Livpreet says she owes a lot to her parents, father Agyakar Singh Grewal and mother Sukhwinder Kaur Grewal, who have encouraged her to pursue the education and training of her interest in farming. They have played a great role in helping her break

 barriers in a sector dominated by men. “My parents never told us this job was not meant for girls. In fact, they always encouraged us to work on the farm, taught us, sisters, how to drive a tractor and pushed us to defy stereotypes not just in the farm, but in whichever field we wanted to pursue.”

Livpreet’s message to women who wish to defy stereotypes is “To all the women out there, do not sit in the corner. Just grab whatever opportunities come your way. There is nothing that you can’t do if you’re dedicated and ready to work hard.”