Breaking through the glass ceiling to diversity and inclusion in agriculture

At FA Bio we embrace people from different backgrounds, believing that it strengthens relationships and promotes creativity, respect and problem-solving within a team. By collaborating and building strong internal and external relationships, we can work together as a team and as an industry to achieve our vision of protecting natural ecosystems.

The Challenge

As a female entrepreneur, you can often find additional challenges to those of your male counterparts, particularly in the agriculture industry. This is primarily due to a minority representation of female leaders in agriculture that consequently could lead to a lack of trust or scepticism in women’s abilities compared with those of others.

There is still a lot of work to do to ensure we shift this misconception that underrepresented entrepreneurs in agriculture are weak leaders or visionaries, undermining their experience and achievements. It is important to form strong partnerships, both inside and outside of businesses, with those who understand and encourage your strengths whilst acknowledging and helping you to improve on your weaknesses.

A positive change

At the heart of the agriculture industry is the growers, who are passionate people looking for real-world solutions to the increasing challenges as they face the consequences of climate change. FA Bio is focused on building strong relationships with growers to ensure we are acknowledging their needs and understanding the solutions we can bring them, developing partnerships for life.

At FA Bio, we believe an inclusive and diverse team with a combination of passion, skills and experiences will ultimately lead to a positive change in the agriculture industry. Innovation and creative thinking will only come from embracing a diverse range of backgrounds. Our pioneering business has a diverse team of dedicated people who embrace challenges with optimism.

Similarly to our growers, creating the right environment is just the first step in the growth cycle. It is only through careful nurturing and support as well as an understanding of individuality and strengths that we can really encourage development and support growth. By growing the individuals within a company, the company will grow with them.

On a mission to protect the natural ecosystems that we need to sustain life, FA Bio is leading a paradigm shift in the discovery of microbial bioproducts for agriculture that can replace chemical inputs and minimise agriculture’s environmental impact. Following the development of their SporSenZ, an early detection soil pathogen tool to guide fungicide applications, FA Bio uses its innovative technology to discover superior microbial biofungicides and biofertilisers for growers.

Breaking through

For entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities, it’s easy to build glass ceilings that can block our way to success. It is important to recognise your strengths and promote them whilst also assessing your areas for improvement and actively working on them. It is only by believing in your mission and putting an action plan in place that we can break through those glass ceilings and see true diversity and inclusion in agriculture.

Angela de Manzanos Guinot