Invest Inya Farmer using partnership to educate students

Invest Inya Farmer (IIF) has an educational application in its pilot phase, IIFed, giving students a virtual $10,000 to invest in agricultural assets to understand growing cycles and crop return.

IIF manager Jo MacPhee, Mansfield, said she grew up on a family farm in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and hoped to use her educational background to connect students with agriculture.

"Nathan and I are a husband-and-wife team, Nathan founded IIF as a unique way to invest in agriculture without needing to own a farm," she said.

"I'm an educator and a farm girl so it's something I'm very passionate about from an education standpoint.

"I know how tough education can be and how time-poor teachers are, so we're trying to create something that's cross-curricular and can be linked to other parts.

"We're igniting that interest and awareness for young adults to think about a pathway in agriculture."

She said the program was in its pilot stage but they hoped to have it across many Victorian classrooms by 2025, and free for educators to use.

"We want to work with teachers and see if it's working for them, whether the engagement is working and what kids are wanting to see with the app," she said.

Ms MacPhee said they had seen students engaging with agriculture first-hand, with a Year Nine student from a generational cattle farm learning about oyster farms.

"Long story short, the teacher said he could spend $9000 on cattle but needed to spend another $1000 elsewhere, so he spent it on oysters," she said.

"And he became so invested in those oysters, when they sold he made a profit, and then he wrote to us asking if we could increase his budget because he spent his money on cattle and wanted to diversify.

"The teacher said it was the most amazing experience for him personally, it opened his eyes beyond cattle."

She said she hoped to continue to see the program bridge a connection between students, consumers and farmers.

"The breadth and depth and beauty of agriculture, I want to showcase that to students," she said.

"We've had kids where a farmer had apricot trees, they were wiped out by the floods, and they were sold at a loss from an investment point of view.

"The kids wrote a letter to the farmer asking if they could go and work on his farm and help him.

"It's really bridging that connection between students, consumers and farmers, we're showcasing careers in ag, which is a beautiful industry to work in and we're sparking that interest and awareness in students."