The Beagle
Nov 14, 2016
Let’s Talk Land Share – the tall and short of landshare agreements
SAGE is presenting a free informal discussion on land share agreements from the viewpoint of both the
tenant farmer and the land holder, to encourage land tenure arrangements to get more people on farms.
With the average age of farmers in Australia exceeding 53 years old (according to the Australian Farm
Institute), there has been a push to get younger farmers into food production. But new farmers are in
short supply. That may not be due to willingness but more a difficulty in raising a large amount of
required capital to purchase land and then invest into the farm business. Combine that with the possible
inexperience of the new farmer, it looks like we’ve only 10 years before all our food comes from China.
There have been some recent attempts to connect those who have land to those who’d like to farm it
but there’s still a need to encourage this further. You only have to drive up and down the coast and
there is no shortage of land on which to grow food and fibre.
SAGE has a strong philosophy to ‘grow the grower’ but the growers need a place to grow.
We are putting a call out to landowners who have land that they’d like to see be more productive and
to anyone who is keen to farm but doesn’t have land, to join Fraser Bayley, a land holder and Kyle
Levier, a tenant farmer for a chat in the paddock at an open discussion about land sharing.
They’ll talk openly about what they each get out of the arrangement, how they alleviated potential
concerns, and what they each need for their agreement to work for them. The audience will be
encouraged to ask questions, and discuss alternative land tenure arrangements that will get more people
on farms and help secure the future of agriculture in our region.
This free information session will be held on Saturday 19 November, 3pm – 6pm at Kyle’s vegie patch
(who is renting land on which to grow his business from the ground up), Princes Highway, Turlinjah.
This is a free event - RSVP to SAGE Education Officer by email education@sageproject.org.au or text
0439 032 038. Refreshments will be provided.
Media Release