In a win for Council's Sustainable Agriculture Program, a tailored agribusiness training program will be rolled out for Tweed farmers and agribusiness owners in 2025.
The funding was announced last month by Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin, as part of the NSW Environmental Trust's Environmental Education Program.
Under the program, Council was awarded $60,000 to deliver the 'Cultivating Tomorrow: Empowering Tweed Shire Farmers through Regenerative Agribusiness Mastery' project.
The project aims to empower farmers with business skills which help them to adopt more regenerative farming practices such as managed grazing, agroforestry, cover cropping and the use of organic amendments like compost.
Council's Program Leader Sustainable Agriculture Eli Szandala said the grant was a win for Tweed's agricultural community.
"We often hear the old adage – it's hard to be green when you're in the red, meaning it's hard to invest in environmental improvements when you're not generating much revenue," Mr Szandala said.
"This project will improve profitability and nature outcomes on farms by filling gaps in business training needs.
"The grant will help deliver relevant, engaging and locally available training courses, coaching and workshops at affordable, subsidised rates for Tweed Shire farmers.
"We're aiming to engage experienced agribusiness trainers and our local farming leaders who run profitable regenerative farms to share their knowledge."
Launch event
To kick off the project, local farmers and agribusiness owners interested in increasing profitability with regenerative farming are invited to Earth Beer Company's brewery at Cudgen on Friday 6 December 2024. Join us from 10 am to 1 pm for an end of year yarn and help tailor the training program to suit yours and other Tweed farming community business development needs.
To register go to https://events.humanitix.com/profitable-regenerative-farming or contact Council's Program Leader Sustainable Agriculture on 6670 2400.
