Manjimup farmer’s sustainable practices wins Corteva’s 2021 Climate Positive Leaders Program

A Manjimup farmer has been named a winner of an international program for his innovative sustainable farming practices. Jake Ryan, a 26-year-old mixed cropping and livestock producer, was one of nine winners of Corteva’s 2021 Climate Positive Leaders Program, which showcases producers around the world who are “successfully implementing, scaling and sharing climate positive practices”. Winners of the global program receive lifetime membership, training and extra benefits from the Global Farmer Network, soil sampling, carbon sequestration measurement and guidance from the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at the Ohio State University. They are also given the chance to share their findings with other farmers. Mr Ryan, pictured, uses practices such as holistic grazing, minimal tillage, cover cropping and mineral nutrition to produce his wide variety of winter vegetables, cereal and oilseed commodity crops, ewes for wool and lamb production, first-cross Angus Friesian heifers and pasture-raised laying hens. The young farmer said he hoped to use the program to share the all-round benefits of these types of practices. “The Climate Positive Leaders Program will help me to communicate to other farmers that climate-positive practices is for the betterment of agriculture and the environment,” he said. “Through this program, I will help demonstrate to other farmers that regenerative practices not only will improve their land but increase productivity and lead to potential financial gains.”