Leading farmers head to pre-G20 summit meeting

The Rabobank Global Farmers Master Class, which begins on November 5, will see about 40 of the world’s leading primary producers gather in Victoria and New South Wales to share ideas on the future of farming. They will then join 600 participants from government, industry, academia, media and advocacy groups at the inaugural Rabobank F20 (Food) Summit in Sydney. 

Chosen from New Zealand to attend the Master Class and F20 Summit are dairy farmers Michael Horgan (Southland), Jane Nugent-O’Leary (Manawatu), and Mark Townshend (Hauraki Plains), and livestock farmers/graziers Dan Jex Blake (Gisborne) and Nelson Hancox (West Otago). 

Rabobank executive board member Berry Marttin says the Master Class and F20 Summit programmes bring industry participants together to look at securing a sustainable future for the food and fibre sectors around the world. 

“The world’s population is forecast to grow from seven billion today to over nine billion by 2050 and at the same time we are nearing the limits of our natural resources,” Marttin says. “So the challenge for farmers and food producers is to feed more people with fewer resources while also being sustainable.

“Rabobank is committed to developing the agriculture sector and through the bank’s global Banking4Food vision we have taken a leadership role in bringing the industry together.” 

Based on the theme ‘The rise of the rural entrepreneur’, the Master Class will have the farmers sharing information and experiences during travels in key producing regions in eastern Australia. They will hear from leading agricultural thinkers and learn about techniques and developments in the supply chain. 

New Zealand chief executive officer Ben Russell says the Master Class programme will be “a mix of farm-stay visits, educational opportunities, best-practice demonstrations and experiences that showcase the best of what this region has to offer, and focus the minds of the farmers on what they can do to innovate and improve farming practices.” 

Taking part will be seven Australian farmers and others from Chile, Brazil, US, Ecuador, Mozambique, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, UK and Zambia. 

The 2014 Master Class concludes in Sydney on November 13 with the inaugural Rabobank F20 (Food 20) Summit. Titled ‘Global food security: shared responsibility, collective solutions’, the summit will hear speakers on food production, improving access to food, encouraging balanced nutrition and strengthening stability in markets and production chains. 

“This is the first event of its kind, gathering farmers, academics, policy makers and key influencers from agriculture and food production, including processors and major agri corporates,” Russell says.

 “The key themes of the F20 summit will form part of a submission to the G20 agricultural working group and will become a platform for the broader food and agribusiness industry to [contribute] solutions to the global food security challenge.”