{"id":411081,"date":"2026-05-26T15:41:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=411081"},"modified":"2026-05-26T15:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:50:48","slug":"entrepreneur-advances-womens-agri-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/entrepreneur-advances-womens-agri-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneur advances women’s agri training"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 There are 1.7 million women leading or co-managing rural properties in Brazil, according to the IBGE. Together, they oversee around 30 million hectares across the country, yet they are rarely talked about. Motivated by this lack of visibility\u2014and the problems it creates\u2014entrepreneur, producer, and rural leader Juliana Farah began mobilizing to create initiatives aimed at this audience. More than three years ago, she launched Semeadoras do Agro within agriculture federation FAESP<\/a>, a program built around three main pillars: Training in entrepreneurship and professional management; care for those who produce; and strengthening female leadership in rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe creation of the Semeadoras do Agro Commission came from a conversation I had with the then president of the FAESP\/SENAR system, Dr. F\u00e1bio de Salles Meirelles, who\u2019s always been a strong supporter and advocate of women\u2019s presence in leadership positions\u2014so much so that, in a pioneering move, he opened space for women on the board during his administration,\u201d recalls Farah, who also chairs the Rural Union of Mineiros do Tiet\u00ea, the city where she produces grains, coffee, and livestock. \u201cAt the time, I shared with him my concern after witnessing the vulnerability of so many women in rural areas, who worked tirelessly yet remained invisible to society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission\u2019s initiatives are designed to support rural women in a comprehensive way because, according to its founder, success in agribusiness goes far beyond the farm gate. \u201cOur work seeks to identify real challenges and propose practical solutions,\u201d she says. This takes place through municipal meetings, which offer training modules developed by the Commission, as well as through other subprograms such as \u201cSemear \u00e9 Cuidar\u201d (\u201cSowing Means Caring\u201d), which provides free preventive screenings through the union network for the early diagnosis of breast, cervical, and skin cancer\u2014an initiative supported by the NGOs Orientavida and Pense Rosa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program\u2019s greatest distinguishing feature is that it does not merely provide a medical exam but enables the entire care journey\u2014it handles logistics by transporting women to examination and treatment sites, offers meals, and provides emotional support for those who receive a diagnosis. To speed up diagnoses, most disease detection procedures are carried out through the private healthcare network. From its launch in 2023 through the end of 2025, 11,000 women had been assisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe work tirelessly to strengthen female leadership, encouraging protagonism and the creation of solid support networks. By bringing together these pillars\u2014training, healthcare, and profitability\u2014we are not only changing the life of one woman but also driving the economic development of entire regions and inspiring future generations,\u201d Farah summarizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her view, the position of women in agribusiness today reflects an irreversible upward movement: they have gone from statistical invisibility to becoming key players in farm management and food security. She also celebrates the fact that there are now 16 women serving as presidents of rural unions in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo. But Farah notes that there is still much to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe fight daily against structural sexism, prejudice, and violence that still seek to limit our abilities to stereotypes. The issue of wage and rights inequality remains a constant concern: we must ensure that women are able to develop their skills under the same conditions as men, with real access to credit and an active voice in decision-making. There is also still much to be done to ease the burden of caregiving responsibilities that have historically fallen solely on us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMen\u2019s work\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Born in Bauru and raised in Birigui, both cities in the countryside of S\u00e3o Paulo state, Farah experienced rural life intensely and had to challenge prejudice against women in the countryside from an early age, especially when she began working at her father\u2019s tannery. \u201cMy first contact with the workforce was with my father, while I was still a young girl, processing raw hides and working on the farm he owned in Goi\u00e1s. Even then, I was already breaking patterns, showing that there was no such thing as \u2018men\u2019s work.\u2019 Later I became a rural producer and entrepreneur, working with soybeans and cattle ranching in Mato Grosso, and more recently, with grains, coffee, and livestock in Mineiros do Tiet\u00ea, Franca, and Cristais Paulista [all three also in the countryside of S\u00e3o Paulo state],\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her father\u2019s maternal grandparents came from Syria, met in Brazil, and married in Ja\u00fa, another city in the countryside of S\u00e3o Paulo state. Her great-grandfather became a prominent businessman in the city, owning a car dealership and serving as a central figure in local society. Meanwhile, her father\u2019s paternal grandfather came from Lebanon at the age of 13, traveling in the hold of a ship until arriving in Santos. He settled in Bariri as a peddler but returned to Lebanon around the age of 20 for an arranged marriage to Juliana\u2019s great-grandmother, who was Syrian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were married by proxy and only met once they were in Brazil. In Bariri they prospered with a store and later on a farm, where they produced coffee, beans, and corn. My great-grandfather was a strong-willed man who supported the entire family through coffee production until his death in 1958,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From her Arab roots, she believes she inherited the DNA of entrepreneurship and the courage to take risks. \u201cMy family\u2019s story is one of great courage and a deep connection to the land. My roots are a blend of resilience and entrepreneurship that crossed oceans. I carry with me very strong values of respect for others, religiosity, and cooperation. I learned that leading is, above all, about serving as a role model and positively influencing people\u2019s lives,\u201d she concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also:
<\/em>Portraits of Brazil of Arab origin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supplied<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great-granddaughter of Syrians and Lebanese, Juliana Farah, chair of FAESPs Semeadoras do Agro Commission, is an active voice in support of women farmers in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2309,"featured_media":411004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[9906,8848,56850,19882,48585,9611,2354],"class_list":{"0":"post-411081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-agribusiness","8":"tag-agribusiness-en","9":"tag-entrepreneur","10":"tag-faesp-2","11":"tag-leadership","12":"tag-lebanon-2","13":"tag-syria-en","14":"tag-women"},"wps_subtitle":"A great-granddaughter of Syrians and Lebanese, Juliana Farah, chair of FAESPs Semeadoras do Agro Commission, is an active voice in support of women farmers in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2309"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411081"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411087,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411081\/revisions\/411087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}