CINDY Cassidy, Ariah Park, has taken out the NSW-ACT 2015 Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Rural Women's Award at Parliament House on Tuesday night.
Ms Cassidy is the chief executive of Farmlink Research, a not-for-profit farming systems group based at Temora, servicing farmers and agribusiness across the region.
Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said Ms Cassidy and other finalists - Sophie Anderson, a barrister from the Byron Bay hinterland and Trudy McElroy, who runs a share-farming broadacre farming enterprise in Deniliquin - are all exceptional women and champions of regional NSW.
"Cindy, Sophie and Trudy were selected from a field of skilled, highly committed and enterprising women from across the state,” he said.
“Cindy’s ambitions to improve agricultural extension and help farmers maximise the use of research and development will stand her in good stead to take out the national competition later this year in Canberra.”
Ms Cassidy will receive a bursary of $10,000 and will participate in the RIRDC Australian Institute of Company Directors’ course, while Sophie and Trudy will receive a $1000 bursary for skills and leadership development.
The NSW/ACT RIRDC Rural Women’s Award is co-ordinated by the Department of Primary Industries’ Rural Women’s Network with financial support from NSW Farmers, Office of Environment and Heritage and The Country Women’s Association of NSW.
