Brief history of Partners in Grain

The Partners in Grain Project has successfully secured funding from GRDC in three rounds, initially from 2001 -2004, then from 2004 -2007 and into the future until 2011.

 

The funding is divided between the grain growing states it provides for a State Coordinator, a small amount for activities and for meetings for each state Reference Group members. Significant volunteer input is provided by Reference Group Members. Grower involvemnet and committment has resulted in a highly successful project.

 

The project operates independently in each state  to meet the identified skill development needs of growers. Training facilitated has included: crop agronomy, succession planning and farm family communication workshops, Company Directors Course, Share Farming, BRI Research Horizons, BRI One Day Wheat Quality Program, Internet and Email, Machinery Replacement Workshops, Farm Safety, Young Grain Growers Forums, Marketing and Understanding Futures as well as other regionally identified programs.

 

The original aims of Partners in Grain were (2001-2004)

 

• To develop a nationally coordinated strategic approach to enhance the active involvement of women and young participants in the grains industry by increasing their technical knowledge and skills
• To provide a supportive community based environment working towards reducing real and perceived barriers to participation
• To enable greater and more confident participation of women and young people in performance benchmarking, financial management and information programs.

 

The Partners in Grain project in each state has been very focused on communication and capacity building particularly of women and new generation grain growers.

 

Partners in Grain have created opportunities for women and young people to attend programs such as;

 

• BRI Research Horizons program in Sydney,
• Gene Technology Workshops in Canberra   
• Company Directors Courses in regional areas.

 

PinG has been instrumental in liaising with trainers and encouraging them to come to regional areas. This has increased the availability of specialised programs for grain growers.

 

PinG’s activities continue to developing skills and confidence leading to improved farming practices, sound agronomy and business decisions, a sharing of the work load and information gathering roles. To survive, farm enterprises must acquire a range of these skills to deal with the changing environment.