Amid improved seasonal conditions, a complicated global market and a pandemic, and in the face of a changing climate, there has never been a more important time to promote leadership in agriculture, according to Syngenta's Paul Luxton, who this week announced the 26 regional winners of the 2020 Growth Awards.
The Syngenta Growth Awards recognise leading growers and farm advisers from different regions across Australia and New Zealand, showcasing their contribution to the industry.
Nominations were by invitation and the 26 regional winners will go onto the final stage of judging, with overall winners to be announced early next year.
Mr Luxton is the managing director and country head of Syngenta Australia and New Zealand and said recognising individuals who were leading the way in agriculture was vital to the future of the sector across the two countries.
"This has always been true but in 2020 it's absolutely critical," he said.
"Good practice, innovation, collaboration and simple passion for the industry is needed now more than ever."
Since its inception in 2014, the program has offered awards in productivity, sustainability and community and people categories.
This year, Syngenta has added an innovator category, to identify growers, advisers and influencers who contribute to innovation in agriculture or apply game-changing technologies.
"Innovation has always been one of the things we look for when judging the awards, because leaders are always testing new ideas and approaches, but this year we chose to go a step further and create a separate category that focuses solely on innovation," Mr Luxton said.
The 2020 regional winners
Productivity Growers: Brad Johnston, Quandialla, NSW, David Haak, Tent Hill, Qld, Simon Doolin, North Star, NSW
Productivity Advisers: Dale Abbott, Bowen, Qld, Graeme Jones, South Island, NZ, Karen Smith, Perth, WA, Paul McIntosh, NSW and Qld, Roger Blyth, Canterbury, NZ, Tim Walker, Devonport, TAS
Sustainability Growers: Adam Schreurs, Clyde, VIC, Murray Hall, Brookton, WA
Sustainability Advisers: Chris Monsour, Bowen, Qld, Chris Toohey, Albury, NSW, Denis Persley, Toowoomba, Qld, Linda Peacock, Tauranga, NZ, Nigel Myers, Lower Eyre Peninsula, SA, Stuart Grigg, Ballan, VIC
Community and People Growers: Anthony De Ieso, Adelaide, SA, Brett South, Esperance, WA, Sue Middleton, Wongan Hills, WA
Community and People Advisers: Alex Thomas, Torrens Park, SA, Grace Brennan, Dubbo, NSW, Josh McGregor, Qld and NSW
Innovator: Heath McWhirter, Griffith, NSW, Sarah Nolet, Sydney, NSW, Tanya and Rob Kitto, Geraldton, WA
Meet the Aussie regional winners
Western Australia
Geraldton's Rob and Tanya Kitto have been named among the innovators for their business, My Provincial Kitchen.
"When we first started, we had plenty of critics saying that others had tried and failed,: the Kittos said.
"We don't give up easily on things that we decide to do.
"We haven't made it to the top rung of the ladder yet, but we've certainly learned how to climb the ladder and we are off the ground.
"Australia needs to create food products rather than commodities and we are starting to see more of this happening."
Sue Middleton, Brennan Rural Group, has been named in the community and people grower category.
She believes agriculture is sitting on a precipice of huge growth and the capital is there to utilise.
"There are three pieces to the puzzle: the way in which agriculture is building its narrative around climate change; human resources and digital access," she said.
"If we can get those three pieces of the puzzle right, there will be no issues for agriculture moving forward."
Murray Hall, Hilroy Farms, Brookton, has been recognised in the sustainability grower group for his farm business skills.
"It is always difficult to buy land when it comes to cash flow," he said.
"We wanted that expansion to have a balanced ecosystem and enterprise mix rather than just switch to high cash flow and high extraction enterprises to fund the expansion. It requires a slower and longer term, more resilient cash flow. Being able to expand with integrity and sustainability and maintain staff was our goal."
Productivity adviser representative Karen Smith is based in Perth with the innovative business, Seed Shield.
"I am most proud of being part of the biggest fleet of seed treating and grading mobile units in Australia," she said.
"We have built that business to support farm enterprises in a very short period of time to be Australia-wide.
"There is also a huge opportunity for the business in the next 12 months and we are expecting a steep growth curve."
Esperance farmer Brett South has been named in the community and people grower category.
"It seems that people could be prepared to go into farming for a short time, maybe a gap year or two years, but then they leave the country and don't come back," he said.
"If we could establish that network which shows the good side of agriculture, then it could encourage people to come into the industry."
Victoria and Tasmania
Clyde farmer Adam Schreurs has been recognised in the sustainability grower category for the work he's done in his family's vegetable business.
"In the past five years, we have relocated our whole vegetable growing business from one location to another 100km away," he said.
"We re-established the enterprise in the new area in South Gippsland which had never seen any vegetable farming or anything like that.
"It wasn't an easy feat. All the locals said we were crazy and it would never work and now they are all asking why it didn't happen before."
Fellow Victorian, Stuart Grigg, Stuart Grigg Ag-Hort consulting, has been named in the sustainability adviser category for his expertise in gird mapping, soil sampling and variable rate applications for fertiliser in the horticulture sector.
"Understanding how this can be used in vegetable production will improve productivity, improve soil nutrition across paddocks and improve yields," he said.
"It will also drive sustainability around vegetable production."
Tim Walker left the corporate world to start Walker Ag Consulting based out of Davonport, Tasmania, and says he feels "a lot more comfortable selling my knowledge than selling products".
"I could see the need for truly independent advice, can practise what I preach on my own farm, and it gave extra credibility I think to the clients I am working for," he said.
New South Wales
Among those named in the innovator category are Heath McWhirter, Summit Ag Consulting, Griffith, and Sarah Nolet, AgThentic, Farmers2Founders and Tenacious Ventures.
Sydney-based Ms Nolet believes there is an opportunity to promote Australian agriculture in terms of innovation and ag tech on a global stage.
"For the past five years, we've been focussing on what was happening overseas and how we could get ahead," she said.
"All the while, there were great things happening in Australia - so now is our opportunity to show we are punching well above our weight."
Mr McWhirter has been involved in the development of the Yacker app and is about to release 2.0 version.
Yacker allows users to share information and photos, but it is specifically aimed at agriculture.
"In agriculture, people are often in cars or tractors or utes, so this has the capacity to be able to phone someone as well as enter text," he said.
A popular choice from NSW in the community and people advisers category is Buy from the Bush founder, Grace Brennan.
Based outside Dubbo, Ms Brennan believes COVID-19 could present some real opportunities for rural Australia.
"Staying at home has ignited huge support for small business and there has been a perfect storm with people wanting to connect with a story behind a product and support small business," she said.
"We have this new audience, so the challenge is how we engage them with creative marketing and selling the bush in creative ways."
North Star graingrower, Simon Doolin, recognised in the productivity grower category, has been doing his bit to educate consumers.
"I sell single origin wheat to bakeries in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and invite bakers to see harvest," he said.
"These bakers may have been in the industry for 40 years and have never seen a wheat harvest or been on a farm.
"I give them an accurate picture of what we do and that we use chemicals, but explain that we manage them with stewardship and that they are necessary for efficient production."
Brad Johnston has also been named in the productivity grower category.
"After diversifying our business and then selling all the fodder, straw and grain we could make, it's time for consolidation," he said.
"It took me several years to understand that it is okay to not sell everything you make straight away.
"Consolidating supplies of grain and hay and straw will act as a type of income insurance policy for our business."
Based at Albury with Elders, Chris Toohey, is named as a sustainability adviser.
"Some of the exceptional productivity that will come at harvest this year is very exciting," he said.
"I think we need to celebrate the harvest, but we also need to value add what we have learned in 2020 and turn it into a sustainable strategy for 2021 and beyond.
"There are lessons to come out of this season about how to do things better and we will learn a lot out of that."
South Australia
Anthony De leso, Thorndon Park Produce, has been running the Feed the Need education program to help university students get their foot in the door of the vegetable industry.
"It allows them to get their hands dirty and learn a little bit about what I do as a grower," said Mr De leso.
"At the end of the day, the crops that are grown under the Feed the Need program are given to the charity Foodbank."
Based on the Lower Eyre Peninsula, Nigel Myers wants to use his skills as an adviser to educate growers about new GM canola technology and its place in the fight against ryegrass resistance.
"We do a lot of ryegrass resistance testing in the business so we have shown growers what they could achieve if they did have the technology," he said.
"We find that quite exciting to be able to bring that to the market."
Recognsed in the community and people adviser category, Alex Thomas has been making waves around farm safety for several years.
She believes putting the health, safety and wellbeing of people on the agenda is agriculture's biggest challenge.
"We need to take a more holistic view of the rural ecosystem and promote not only a sustainable industry but sustainable human beings as a part of that," she said.
"We need to pick up who the key influencers are, everyone from heads of companies to rural women, to get the message across about safety on farm."
Queensland
Based in Toowoomba, Paul McIntosh is an advisor with Pulse Australia and has been named as one of the productivity advisor winners.
Mr McIntosh said pressure about minimum residue limits (MRL) in crops sold to export markets would be a key issue for the pulse sector into the future.
"The issue lies with the desiccation which is needed before harvest," he said.
"I am working with growers to trial swathing, negating the need for a desiccating spray.
"Given that 98 per cent of desi chickpea and mung beans grown in Australia are exported, MRLs are something that we need to tackle."
Chris Monsour, Prospect Ag, Bowen, enjoys exposing his clients to new developments and technologies.
"My role is not just going out there and monitoring and providing advice about pest management, it's about bringing to them things that can elevate them above their competition and make them prosperous," he said.
Dale Abbott, Bowen Crop Monitoring Services, has been nominated in the productivity adviser category.
"We are operating in a very different environment at the moment with public health and who knows how this will play out in terms of labour supply and even the market for goods," he said.
"Our growers have been lucky so far in this production area, in that we haven't had to deal with a COVID-19 situation crisis, but something like that would put a great strain on our workforce and that of our grower clients."
Tent Hill farmer, David Haak, is named in the productivity grower category and is keeping his focus on farm innovation.
"We don't grow a lot of crops during the summer with our major season running from March until September.
"So by next March, we would be looking to bring our new properties into full production by improving nutrient levels and building up the soil.
"That will also involve setting up automatic irrigation which will be permanent, more efficient and can be turned on and off remotely."
Southern Queensland based advisor, Josh McGregor, McGregor Gourlay, said his business tried to find positives during last year's drought.
"It is hard for anyone not from here to comprehend what that was really like, because it wasn't just 2019," he said.
" I went to a couple of events where you could start to see the fear in people's eyes.
"We had the philosophy last year that we were not going to let a good crisis go to waste. We improved our management structure and feel there is a big opportunity to put what we honed, to the test."
Denis Persley works for the Department of Agriculture based in Toowoomba and said it had been rewarding to work closely with farmers in the vegetable industry.
"The most exciting opportunity is work I am doing in conjunction with the University of Queensland and a commercial company to develop a new system of virus management. It's a novel method which uses viral genes to immunise the plant against infection."
This year Mr Luxton was joined on the judging panel by Ian McConnell, Director of Beef Sustainability for Tyson Foods; Richard Heath, Executive Director of the Australian Farm Institute; Kirrily Condon, Agronomic Consultant with Grassroots Agronomy; and Brianna Casey, Chief Executive Officer of Foodbank Australia.
Nominees were asked questions designed not only to demonstrate their achievements and expertise, but to uncover their views about collaboration across the industry and big picture topics from future agricultural challenges to food security.
For more information please visit: www.syngenta.com.au/growth-awards-2020