email: serresal@wanadoo.fr

Karen Serres

President of the Standing Committee on Women in Agriculture of IFAP

Karen Serres is President of the Standing Committee on Women in Agriculture of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, IFAP being the international organisation of the world’s farmers grouping 102 national farmers’ organisations from 72 countries.

 

Mrs. Serres is a French producer who represents women farmers within the Federation and in international meetings. She works at the national level with the French Farmers Union F.N.S.E.A. to advocate the rights and interests of rural women in her country. Karen Serres is also President of COPA Women Farmers Commission, which has similar objectives on women issues at the European level. Her involvement is a daily activity from local to international levels.

 

Mrs Serres runs a family farm with her husband in the south of France. They rear sheep and pigs. They are also parents to five children. Karen Serres has an international background. She was born is Denmark, lived in Nigeria and went to school in England before coming to France as an adult.

 

Having spent her childhood in Africa, developing countries’ issues are close to her heart. Mrs Serres truly believes that the IFAP Standing Committee on Women in Agriculture must support rural women in their struggle for food security and for the sustainable development of agriculture. She maintains that empowering and supporting women farmers are one of the most efficient means to fight poverty and thereby to achieve peace and development.