The upper ranks of the male-dominated National Farmers' Union (NFU) could soon be penetrated by a woman.

Marie Sykes, the UK's best-known female farmer, is standing for the NFU deputy president post in the elections next month, and does not deny having her eye on the union's top job – currently occupied by unopposed president Ben Gill.

The Norfolk arable farmer, who manages 500 acres of wheat, barley and sugar beet with her husband, Chris, says she wants the NFU to modernise and adapt to a world in which government and EU subsidies of the past 30 years will no longer be a guarantee of farmers' incomes.

No stranger to the media, and regular columnist for agricultural publications, Sykes believes family farms must look beyond farming to survive, and diversify to tourism and safeguarding the environment. l