Valeria Contartese, Director of R&D
New AG International spoke with Valeria Contartese, Director of R&D at Greenhas Group, specialists in plant nutrition based in Italy and one of the founding companies of the European Biostimulants Industry Council (EBIC). We asked Contartese about her route into agriculture, and the women who inspired her along the way.
To begin with, can you describe your career to date, and the journey that has led you to become the R&D manager for a successful agricultural inputs company? After earning my degree in Agricultural Technologies and Sciences in 2005, I completed my studies working at the Plant Health Session of the Ministry of Rural Affairs and the Environment of Malta.
During 2007 I decided to travel, working for an Italian NGO in a Rural Development Project in Ecuador, in a small village called Salinas De Guaranda. There I had the chance to stay in close contact with people that work hard to obtain higher incomes and greater economic well-being for themselves and their numerous children.
When I returned to Italy, I was determined to work in an area that pursued the principles of a sustainable agricultural system contributing to a wider action to ensure secure food for all people. I started to work in the Greenhas Group in 2009, joining the R&D Department in 2011 as a Manager and becoming a Director in 2019. Currently I am leading the research and development of innovative biostimulants, a new generation of products available on the market, which may be useful to drive the green economic growth, contributing to sustainable agricultural policies and the circular economy. They are defined by the EU Regulation 2019/1009 as products stimulating plant nutrition processes regardless of the product’s nutrient content with the sole aim of improving nutrient use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, quality traits, availability of confined nutrients in the soil. When I started to work in Greenhas, the biostimulant sector was not so well-known and investigate. But now you only have to see that the academic publications on biostimulants have grown in the last years, the research on this field is exciting and inspiring to me. By way of illustration, in 2021 it was higher (+46%) than in 2020 (and much higher than 2011, exactly when the interest in these special products started to grow thanks to the EBIC (European Biostimulant Industry Council) foundation. Market studies predict an increase on the biostimulants market up to USD 5.6 billion by 2026.
I believe that plant biostimulants can help farmers to overcome environmental difficulties and climatic changes. The application of these products ensures that plants become less vulnerable to the environmental stress and farmers can adapt their agricultural systems in order to enhance a sustainable food production. To meet the needs of the modern agriculture, Greenhas Group has opened a Research Center dedicated to the study of its specialties. We study and test the biostimulants before presenting them to the market.
Were there any women in the agricultural profession that particularly inspired you along the way? My grandmother is from a rural area. She had to work in the field producing vegetables for ensuring food and education to her child. This was at a time when there was inadequate access to secure rights over land and women were particularly disadvantaged in this regard. She was an inspiration to me along the way, as well as all those women that across the centuries have been working hard to see the recognition of their own rights accomplished. The gender gap today remains extensive. In Europe, according to the article published by Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development in 2021, the most recent data suggest that on average, 29% of farms across EU are managed by women; in the US according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, women are the main operators of nearly 14% of national farms. Globally around the world, considering 104 countries, fewer than 15% of agricultural landholders are women (FAO, 2018). A global policy for the gender equality is urgently needed to fill this gap.
What advice would you have for young women considering a career in agriculture? Would you advise them to focus more on the practical or more on the academic? Firstly, I think that we need to modernize agriculture, we need young people who can breathe fresh air into the industry, and this is both women and men.
Practical or academic for young woman? Even if it might sound like a cliché, it does not exist the right answer. I believe that people have to choose the most suitable work for themselves and even if there are biological differences between man and woman, those are not the differences people are usually talking about. The choice of the workplace depends on their own ambitions and passions that need to be followed when possible. Monthly, in our research centre we host students coming from the universities for internship. Some of them are more used to greenhouses and openfields regardless of the gender but according to the field of study they choose. Once I heard an interview of the Italian astrophysicist Margherita Hack that suggested that women should never feel inferior, be combative, fully self-confident and respectful towards colleagues or competitors, although it is important to be inflexible in front of any underestimation of their own work.
How has Greenhas Group helped to promote women in agriculture? The Greenhas group, has its legal seat and production in Italy, and distributes its products in many countries in the world through four companies. The company has never been discriminatory in the employment selection process promoting a meritocratic policy internally and encouraging a spirit of collaboration among people. Today 49% of employees are women (Figure 1) and 52% of managerial positions are occupied by women (Figure 2). The R&D Team of which I am the director is composed of 6 women and 4 men.
Fig.1. Percentage of men and women employees in Greenhas. Source: internal data, 2022.
Fig.2. Percentage of men and women in managerial positions in Greenhas. Source: internal data, 2022.
Moreover, the average age of employed women is 34. Finally, I work for a young and dynamic company where the meritocracy is the requirement to get ahead.
Looking forwards, what developments in agriculture – such as precision agriculture and biological products – do you think might attract more women into the agricultural industry? Precision farming and biological products, such as biostimulants, belonging to a new and modern concept of agricultural industry.
The modern sustainable agricultural system includes a combination of advanced technologies and new generation products in order to respond to the expanding global population, the increasing demand for higher crop yield, the need to use low environment impact practices optimizing the natural resources. It is a very big challenge for those of us involved in this field and for those making international policies because a change of direction is needed! Concerning the sustainability, women seem to be more used to green topics. Speaking about women’s environmental leadership in the public governance, according to a FAO report, Women’s leadership in environmental action, it seems that among the European Parliament legislators over two legislative cycles, male and female expressed a similar concern for the environment, but women were significantly more likely to support environmental legislation. The same relation highlights that when women take part in the international negotiation, the discussions are deeply analysed and a greater pressure on parties to reach agreement is exerted. Nevertheless, a persistent gender gap in top decision-making positions among the environmental ministries is still present around the world. The gender disparity is more serious in those countries that according to the forecast will be more affected by the climate change: in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 28% of environment ministers are women and in Latin America and the Caribbean only 7% (Strumskyte et al, 2022). Gender equality is needed. It is essential to achieve food security, nutrition and all the sustainable development goals. For a long time, FAO has been trying to promote programmes aimed at reducing the disparity. For example, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and FAO’s Policy on Gender Equality is guided by the principle of “leaving no one behind”. This policy prioritizes the equal participation and decision-making of women and men in rural institutions and in shaping laws, policies and programmes (FAO, 2018)
Looking at the new generation, they seem to be more interested in environment-related careers. LinkedIn’s first-ever Global Green Skills Report published in February 2022, states that green talents have increased in all age groups but fastest in Millennials, with 13% year-on-year growth globally, between 2015-2021 but unfortunately globally, in 2021 there were 62 women for every 100 men considered green talents.
Probably we are not so close to solve the gender inequality that has been fed along the centuries across all the human history and probably we need to change our mind starting with the upbringing and education of both male and female. We have not to “think like a man” to move up in our careers but we need to trust that we can achieve any position also in the agricultural sector!
Valeria Contartese, Director of R&D at Greenhas Group
Credit G. Galleano
Greenhas Group has opened a Research Centre in Canale, Italy, near to its head office
Greehas R&D Team
