And while Albury's Rebecca Staines and Rennie's Fiona Marshall admit there is still a long way to go to achieving that gender balance, being part of the National Farmer's Federation Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program has cemented their passions and future career paths.

The pair were part of a group of 12 women with skills and experience in agriculture and a vision for the industry's future who graduated from the five-month one-on-one personal development mentoring program.

Their graduation was also timely, being the day before International Rural Women's Day.

For Mrs Marshall, who runs a mixed-farming enterprise in Rennie with her husband Craig and their three adult children, doubling the number of women in agriculture leadership roles by 2030, is "definitely doable".

"We are well on our way to achieving that already," she told The Border Mail.

"Agri-business is really important to us, we have a mixed farm, mostly cropping but we have a sheep prime lamb enterprise as well.

"I can't tell you how much I have got out of the NFF program.

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"I think gender equity in agriculture has been something that has needed to be addressed, and is now being addressed.

"Women have always worked in agriculture, possibly more women than men at times because there has been times when men have had to be off farm or going off to war. "They have always been there but the recognition wasn't there and that is what has changed recently, and this program aims to change that gender balance higher up in the industry.

"And I think that is fantastic."

While Mrs Marshall said her passion is for "high quality professional development for farmers".

"Too often I have heard people say they are dumbing it down for the farmer, that is something I am extremely offended by.

"Farm business is extraordinarily complex and farmers deal with so many different issues, scientific information, what they know and what they can do in their head always amazes me.

"My passion is to be a role model and help those outside the industry to know just how complex their job is, how much they know and how they can pitch their professional development focused on farmers."

Albury-based Ms Staines, who is an agronomist by trade, works for Nutrien Ag Solutions, formerly known as Landmark, as their national seed category manager.

Being part of the program has helped her find the next step in her career within the ag industry.

"Now I have a set clarified career path or career goals in mind," she said.

"We had a wide range of access to industry leaders which you get so much out of that as well as speaking to the other 11 ladies you get so much out of.

"Those sort of things really inspire you when you hear what the other woman are doing.

"We still need to do more on the gender diversity front.

"There are plenty of women in the ag industry but not enough in leadership roles."

Ms Staines said that could be down to confidence.

"My person opinion is that we need to build confidence in females, sometimes we can be out own worst enemy.

"We need more confidence in our own ability and this is what the program is about as well as the programs within Nutrien."

Ms Staines said she still wants to remain with Nutrien but is looking at expanding her role down the track.

As the first female president of the NFF in its 40-year history, Fiona Simson said the NFF had a goal to double the number of women in agriculture's leadership ranks by 2030.

"From the pledges and progress reports of our partners and the ongoing success of our alumni it's clear we're well on the way to achieving this goal, if not knocking it out of the park," she said.