Art4Agriculture is thrilled to announce the availability of a one year scholarship to its flagship program Young Farming Champions, gifted by an anonymous donor.

This generous contribution will allow one young person aged between 19 and 30 to join this illustrious program, which trains the new generation of agricultural advocates by giving them skills in communication, media and professional and personal development.

“The Young Farming Champions Program is a fantastic opportunity to foster and develop the best young minds in agriculture today,” founder Lynne Strong says. “It is all about engaging these wonderful agricultural voices with the wider community, assisting them to share their stories, and promoting them as role models for others considering a career within the industry.”

“Our anonymous donor has gone above and beyond in efforts to support rural Australia and I encourage young people working in any agricultural industry to apply. To be eligible they must be either undertaking a tertiary education course or working in an industry that supports the United Nations Sustainable Goal of Responsible Production and Consumption.”

The agriculture sector everywhere has a huge responsibility. It feeds, clothes and has the potential to power the world. Every day people in the sector make environmental, economic and social decisions about the way they do business. In Australia our farmers look after sixty percent of the Australian landscape (that is more than the government) and the majority of our natural biodiversity.   This makes our farmers both our largest biodiversity managers and our source of food

Australia needs to increase food quality rather than food quantity,” Lynne continues. “If we merely aim for volume at all costs, then the natural environment will be the ‘cost’. However, if we send the signal that it is quality from an increasingly healthy natural resource base, then both the natural resource base and farmers will be the beneficiaries. To achieve this Australian agriculture needs young voices with a burning desire to lead transformational change and the skills to do it”

The Young Farming Champion who shares these values and desires who is selected as the sponsorship winner will attend workshops in Sydney and be part of the team taking agriculture into schools with The Archibull Prize.

Past graduates of the program include 2017 Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year Josh Gilbert and 2015 Young Australian Farmer of the Year Anika Molesworth.

Are you aged between 19 and 30 (in 2017) and have a burning desire to help lead transformational change in Australian agriculture? If the answer is yes then we invite you  to apply by filling in the expression of interest form. The Expression of Interest form can be found here

Closing Date for Applications is 1st May 2017

For more information on the Young Farming Champions visit the website at http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/yfc/

We look forward to hearing from you.

If you have any questions please email Lynne Strong at Lynnestrong@art4agriculture.com.au  or phone on 0407 740 446