Farm Diversity

Farm diversification is an increasingly common practice all over the world. With increasing financial, environmental and market pressure, farm diversification offers farmers the opportunity to spread income risk and build resilience. 

Farm Diversity is an AgriFutures Australia initiative that allows farmers to search crop and animal production alternatives by type or location to discover what is best suited to their farm.

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Case Studies

Brian Ahmed case study

While the egg may have come first for Victorian farmer Brian Ahmed, what followed was far more diverse than simply chickens.

Read Brian’s story

Paul & Joan Trevethen case study

At first glance, the Trevethan family’s farm business at Howlong, in southern New South Wales, looks like a typical broad-acre cropping, wool and prime lamb enterprise.

Read Paul & Joan’s story

Bernard & Margaret Brain case study

The story of farming on Bernard and Margaret Brain’s property ‘Rotherwood’, at Ouse in Tasmania’s Derwent Valley, is one of constant evolution and refinement over more than half a century.

Read Bernard & Margaret’s story

Alpaca

Alpacas can be farmed for fibre, meat and leather but in Australia, are grown mainly for their fibre.

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Anise Myrtle

Anise myrtle (Syzygium anisatum) is a native rainforest species that has leaves with strong liquorice and aniseed flavours.

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Asian melons

Asian melons are members of the Cucurbitaceae family and are termed Asian melons as they are widely used in Asian cuisine. They originated from Indo-China and have spread throughout Asia

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Azuki Beans

The azuki bean, also known as the adzuki bean or aduki bean, is widely grown throughout East Asia and the Himalayas for its small bean, approximately 5mm long. They are a short season, summer crop (120 days from growing to harvest) and can be double ...

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Banksia

Banksia plants belong to a genus of around 170 species native to Australia.

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Barramundi (aquaculture)

Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) is considered an iconic fish of northern Australia. It is a large, majestic silver fish, which can grow to over one metre in length.

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Beekeeping (honey bees)

Honey bees are kept primarily for honey, bees wax, package bees and, increasingly, to provide pollination services for food and seed crops.

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Bitter Melon

Bitter melon (Momordica charantia), also known as fu qua, ampalaya, bitter gourd, balsam pear and alligator pear, is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family.

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Black tea

Tea is produced by harvesting the fresh shoots of the tea plant, an evergreen shrub or small tree, with dark green glossy leaves and small white flowers.

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Blackwood

Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) is a member of the wattle family.

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Boronia oil

Boronia is a genus of small shrubs, with approximately 95 species and all but one are native to Australia.

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Buffalo

The water buffalo has many uses and in Asia even though it is primarily a dairy animal, it is also an important source of meat, draft power and leather. The greatest numbers in the world reside in India, Pakistan and China.

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Bush Tomato

Bush tomato (Solanum centrale) belongs to the Solanaceae family, which includes plants such as potato, tomato, eggplant, capsicum and chilli.

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Californian Redwood

Californian redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is the tallest tree species on Earth, growing to over 100 metres in height and about three metres in diameter.

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Carob

The carob is a flowering evergreen tree cultivated mainly for its edible pods and seeds, but also grown as an ornamental garden specimen. Commonly known as St John’s bread or locust bean, it is a member of the legume family, although it does not fi...

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Centipeda

Centipeda cunninghamii is a native Australian plant, found predominantly in south eastern Australia in moist but not flooded soils, near rivers and around wetlands and billabongs.

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Chinese Jujube

The Chinese Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) is one of the most important fruit crops in China and has been consumed as a food and used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years.

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Christmas Bush

Christmas bush (Ceratopetalum gummiferum) is a small long-lived tree that produces a profusion of bright red flowers around December.

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Cocoa

Cocoa, Theobroma cacao, is a small evergreen tree that grows 4-8 metres in height and is native to the deep tropical regions of Central and South America.

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Coffee

The stimulating effect of the coffee bean has been recognised for almost 2,000 years, and today, coffee is the world’s most widely traded tropical agricultural commodity.

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Coriander

Coriander, also known as cilantro and Chinese parsley, is a culinary herb, native to regions in southern Europe, North Africa and south western Asia. All parts of the coriander plant are edible with the fresh leaves and stems (before flowering), root...

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Crocodiles

The Australian crocodile industry began commercial production in the late 1970’s.

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Culinary bamboo shoots

Culinary bamboo shoots are harvested from the actively growing immature stems that develop from buds on the underground rhizome of many bamboo species.

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Cultivated seaweed

Seaweeds are algal organisms of which there are about 4000 species worldwide, diverse in form, biology and chemistry.

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