World’s First Farmer Incubator Launched

The Minister for Agriculture Senator the Hon Bridget McKenzie is endorsing Cultivator which is Australia’s first farm investment incubator.

Cultivator is an initiative of Cultivate Farms, which matches the best next generation aspiring farmers with farm investors to own and operate a farm together.

Sam Marwood, Cultivate Farms Managing Director says that Cultivator has a farm investor ready to back the best aspiring farmer to co-own a farm with them. All farmers participating in Cultivator will receive the skills and resources to pitch to farm investors.

“The Cultivate Farms team have met with hundreds of aspiring farmers whose dreams of owning and running their own farm have been squashed, because they don’t have access to the millions of dollars needed to buy a farm,” says Sam.

Sam Marwood, Cultivate Farms Managing Director. Photo: Supplied.

Australian Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie said encouraging new finance into the agricultural sector was important for growth and to promote new and different ways of thinking.

“This sort of financial innovation can give the next generation of farmers an opportunity to co- own a farm with an investor. It is ideas like this that will help the Australian agriculture industry reach $100 billion in 2030.”

Claire Coates, along with her husband Marc, are the farmers who were matched to a farm investor, for the first iteration of Cultivator in 2017. She says that the barriers to young people owning farms are complex.

Claire Coates. Photo: Supplied.

“We knew that we wanted to own our own farm,” says Claire. “Through approaching our dream to own a farm like an entrepreneur, Cultivator made it possible to value of farm opportunity and pitch this directly to a farm investor. Cultivator is an amazing opportunity for any aspiring farmer who wants to realise their farm ownership dreams.”

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