FarmReady Reimbursement

FarmReady Reimbursement Grants

Primary producers, wild game harvesters and Indigenous land managers are being assisted to undertake training through the support of the Australian Government’s FarmReady Reimbursement Grants program.

The popular scheme reopened on 1 July 2011 and began pre-approving training for the current financial year.

I encourage primary producers, wild game harvesters and Indigenous land managers to assess their own learning needs and examine the training and opportunities available with the assistance of the FarmReady program.

The FarmReady Reimbursement Grants program has also been expanded and now includes support for training of Agritourism and food tourism management – its marketing, customer relations, product development and coordination.

This extension of FarmReady will help fill the gap between agricultural sector skills and the skills required for tourism. This gap was identified in the ABARES 2010 study Drivers of regional agritourism and food tourism in Australia, where it was found that agritourism opportunities are often underutilised on farms.

To encourage investment in your own training, participants will now contribute 35 per cent of the cost of the approved course to be eligible for a FarmReady Reimbursement Grant.

This decision will make the FarmReady program accessible to more primary producers, with reimbursement grants of up to $ 1,500 per financial year and funding of up to $500 each financial year also available to assist with excess travel, accommodation and child care expenses.

Indigenous land managers will not need to make a co-contribution to attend approved FarmReady training.

With a budget of $34.4 million over four years, the Australian Government’s FarmReady program aims to boost training opportunities for primary producers, wild game harvesters and Indigenous land managers, enabling industry, farming groups and natural resource management groups develop strategies to adapt and respond to the impacts of climate change.

This highly successful program has provided over 22,000 training opportunities since February 2009.

I encourage you to participate in a FarmReady accredited training course. To apply you should first  make contact with the training provider offering the course, and then with the program administrator for pre-approval of the FarmReady Reimbursement Grant, before attending the course.

For further information about FarmReady Reimbursement Grants, including program information, a list of approved courses and forms, visit www.farmready.gov.au.

-Brett de Hayr
National Landcare Facilitator