National Landcare Program: Smart Farms Transcript

National Landcare Program: Smart Farmspresented on 15 September 2017 - Transcript

ByPeter Ottesen

Transcript

National Landcare Program: Smart Farms

September 2017

Presented by:

Peter Ottesen

Assistant Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Water Resources

[Opening visual of slide with text saying ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘National Landcare Program’, ‘September 2017’, ‘National Landcare Program: Smart Farms’, ‘Presented by Peter Ottesen – Department of Agriculture and Water Resources’]

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Peter Ottesen:

Hello and welcome. My name is Peter Ottesen. I’m the Assistant Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, and I’m responsible for the National Landcare Program.

Today in this video I will provide you with more detail about the Smart Farms Program. The Smart Farms Program is a six year program beginning this year, 2017-18, and finishing in 202223. It has three elements. $60 million will be invested in smart farming partnerships, $50 million will be invested in smart farms small grants, and $24 million will be invested in building Landcare community and capacity.

Smart farming partnerships is an open competitive grant opportunity to support longer term and larger projects up to about four or five years. It’s intended to encourage the development and rollout of new and innovative tools and farm practices. It has a strong element of innovation, where innovation is change that unlocks new value. It is modelled on the successful National Landcare Program innovation grants, and also the Carbon Farming Futures Program which finished recently.

Projects range in value from $250,000 to $4 million. There will be two rounds of funding, the first this year, 2017-18, and the second is planned in late 2018-19. These grants will be open to a wide range of individuals and organisations, and applicants are required to form partnerships to deliver the outcomes with a nominated lead organisation.

Smart farms small grants is an open competitive grants program and will support smaller, shorter term on-ground projects, perhaps up to two years. It is very much about the on-ground application of best practice land management techniques by local and regional organisations. It’s modelled on the successful sustainable agricultural small grants round in 2016.

Projects will range in value from $5,000 to $100,000. There will be two tiers of grants. Tier one grants will be from $5,000 to $50,000 and will be focused on small on-ground projects delivered by farming system groups, Landcare groups and other community groups. Tier two grants will be from $50,000 to $100,000. There will be a similar focus. They will have to be on-ground, but they might be a larger scale project and also they’ll be open to larger organisations such as the Local Regional Natural Resource Management Organisation.

We’re planning six rounds beginning in 2017-18. The Building Landcare Community Capacity Program will provide funds that support, build and motivate individuals and groups to deliver improved natural resource management outcomes. This program will fund activities such as awards and leadership programs, conferences, communications and promotions and engagement activities, and also deliver on-ground improvements in land management.

For updates and more information on the Smart Farms Program, please visit the website nrm.gov.au. And thank you for viewing this video, and I look forward to your continued interest and participation in the National Landcare Program.

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[Closing visual of slide with text saying ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘National Landcare Program’, ‘September 2017’, ‘National Landcare Program: Smart Farms’, ‘Presented byPeter Ottesen – Department of Agriculture and Water Resources’]

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