Internship promotes grain research on Eyre Peninsula

PHOTO: Past intern Bek Fatchen with Ted Langley, Bryan Smith, Andrew Ware and Andrew Polkinghorne.

Fostering and developing capacity in grains research on the Eyre Peninsula will continue into 2024 with the extension of the highly-regarded internship program.

Aimed at encouraging graduates to extend their practice and knowledge base, successful graduates spend 12 months within local research organisations to further develop their applied research skills, making an improved contribution to the grains, research, development and extension industry on the EP.

AIR EP Executive Officer Naomi Scholz is encouraging recent agriculture graduates to apply for the 2023/24 internship program, which is in its fourth year.

“The intern program, while still relatively new, is a great way of connecting young graduates with the industry, and furthering their research and development skills,” Ms Scholz said.

“It helps graduates get in and get their hands dirty, giving them the opportunity to make valid contribution to the grains industry, vastly accelerating their experience.” 2022 intern Rebekah Fatchen, who has gone on to become a Project Officer for AIR EP, was full of praise for the experience.

“The skills and knowledge I gained over the 12-month period were invaluable. It helped further develop on my base knowledge I had learnt from under-graduate at university and was a steppingstone to working in the grains industry on the Eyre Peninsula,” Ms Fatchen said.

Other skills learnt during the internship include:

• improve the understanding of local grains research, development and extensions issues and building empathy with EP growers.
• develop a network of researchers, advisors and leading EP growers.
• develop skills and experience in applied field research, planning, managing, measuring and analysing field experiments.
• develop skills and experience in communicating.

The internship program is jointly funded by the South Australian Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub and the South Australian Grains Industry Trust (SAGIT).

For more information on the internship visit the AIR EP website or contact EO Naomi Scholz on 0428 540 670.