In an era of climatic uncertainty and increasing droughts, farm improvement projects that restore degraded land, enhance natural assets and improve drought resilience are becoming ever more important. However, sustainable funding of these projects presents a challenge that requires novel solutions.

In this webinar, Sustainable Farms Director Michelle Young and Professors Bruce Chapman and David Lindenmayer will share research that identifies a new way of financing farm improvements. Professors Chapman and Lindenmayer propose a novel loan mechanism that minimises financial risk to farmers while also exerting negligible effects on government budgets.

National Farmers Federation Chief Economist and General Manager Trade, Ash Salardini, and Regional Investment Corporation Board Member, Mark Lewis, will respond to the proposal. Panel discussion will focus on the viability of this kind of financing mechanism. The views, questions and insights of policy experts, researchers, farmers and key interest groups participating in this webinar will be extremely valuable in shaping the future direction of this proposal.

Background reading: Paper by Professors Bruce Chapman and David Lindenmayer, available at https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5deb

This event is being organised and run by ANU Sustainable Farms .