Farmers Feed the World – an innovative agricultural project for refugees

Suddenly finding yourself in a big city can be a daunting experience for someone who has lived their whole life in the country as a farmer. I recently met a man in the suburbs of western Sydney who had been a successful farm owner in northern Iraq when the war tore through and forced him and his family to flee. He’s been in Australia for just over a year and is becoming more and more frustrated at not being able to find work. His dream is to start his own farm in Australia but he doesn’t even know where to start.

This doesn’t make sense for the settlement outcomes of refugees but it also doesn’t make economic sense when we have rural towns crying out for labour and needing to diversify their economies.

How can we harness all of the skills brought by refugees to not only contribute to existing jobs and businesses, but potentially enhance regional growth through new agribusiness and innovation?

There are a few examples in Australia including a traditional Burundian food garden in Mildura and an African resettlement initiative to the tiny township of Mingoola.

In Belleville, Canada, Quinte Immigration Services came up with a great idea. They got together with the Canadian Red Cross and the Ontario Government to establish the Farmers Feed the World project. By engaging with farmers across the region, they identified a range of agricultural employment opportunities and then marketed these to Syrian farmers living in Toronto.

A key part of the project was hosting a series of video webinars with Arabic translation which enabled refugees in Toronto and other parts of Canada to tune in and receive information about Canadian agricultural practices and connect with employment opportunities in the region.

You can check out these videos and other resources at farmersfeedtheworld.org.

Here’s Orlando Ferro, Executive Director of Quinte Immigration Services who shared his experiences with me as well as some lessons learned.