Veteran and 21st century Land Girls visit IWM’s Wartime Farm

Working together at the museum's temporary open-air farm, the Land Girls demonstrated how the skills of women in the sector have changed during the last 70 years, whilst highlighting how the government-funded Women and Work programme has helped the modern day Land Girls to develop their skills and careers.

"During the Second World War, British agriculture had to dramatically increase production to feed the nation and the Women's Land Army played an essential part in this process, along with prisoners of war and those who volunteered at Farming Holiday Camps," said a spokesperson for the Imperial War Museum.

"Our Ministry of Food exhibition, and the Wartime Farm, seeks to pay tribute to the men, women and children who played their part in the story of wartime food, including the many thousands of Women's Land Army recruits whose duties ranged from ploughing to rat catching."

The Wartime Farm, now in its second and final week, features sheep, goats, pigs and chickens from Surrey Docks Farm.

Vauxhall City Farm has provided a fake cow that can be milked by visitors.

According to research published by Lantra, the environmental and land-based skills council, 81 per cent of the agricultural workforce is male. To help redress the balance Lantra's Women and Work programme is providing women with £450 training grants.

Lantra's programme has helped more than 3,000 women over the last four years gain skills in areas such as farm-shop layout, tractor driving, butchery, animal and livestock foot trimming, website design, management and accounts.

• The Wartime Farm is in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park until Sunday 22 August; open 11am-4pm