Wide Open Agriculture's vision is to offer large scale impact investments
that rejuvenate critically endangered ecosystems
and revitalize communities in Western Australia.
Our purpose is to transform highly degraded landscapes and create productive farms
and healthy ecosystems connect with biodiversity and cultural corridors.
We apply a three zone approach to regenerate degraded land.
The three zones integrate economic, combined
and natural zones to create profitable, restored farmland.
Wide Open Agriculture's philosophy is based on the Four Returns.
The first return, a financial return - making money like anyone else.
The second return being a social return,
which in terms of the Wheat Belt is bringing people back to the Wheat Belt.
The third one is - is the natural return, a return of natural capital.
And that brings back biodiversity to a place that was once as biodiverse as a rain forest.
And - and doing all these things together brings back,
what to me, is the glue that holds it all together,
which is a return of hope and inspiration.
Our aim is to make meaningful food in healthy ecosystems and positive communities.
We've commenced our on-farm diversified activities.
We've purchased land in the northern Wheat Belt.
We have our 4 Reasons brand established and we've come a long way in 12 months.
Wide Open Agriculture has partnered
with a group of regenerative farmers in the Wheat Belt.
What will be happening is they will be leasing land that we buy
and transforming that land into biologically-farmed land.
The first of these farms that we're working with are Rob and Caroline Rex.
So far at Rob and Caroline's farm in Arthur River, we've laid the pad for the greenhouse
and the actual retractable roof system will be installed later this year.
We've also employed some amazing staff, including Damien Rigali as our head grower.
He has 15 years experience in the vegetable growing industry.
Most importantly, he's totally committed to regenerative farming practices
that underpin the Wide Open Agriculture philosophy.
This is a perfect location for horticulture,
as the water quality matches the growing conditions and the soil media.
The crops we plan to plant will be in-season vegetables ranging
from lettuces to brassicas to tomatoes and cucumbers.
So initially we'll be servicing the local community,
moving into the Perth market with the restaurants
and then hopefully the products will move into the Southeast Asian markets.
Water is probably the most critical element in this project.
Our approach is to look at capturing this water when it falls from the sky,
high in the cachement, before it's salty.
We're going to do this using K-line dams and roted cachements.
The cost of a kiloliter of water over the life cycle of the dam
is around two to ten cents a kiloliter.
Now compare that to other water sources.
The other one that we'd be using as a backup source would be solar water pumping
at around 20 cents a kiloliter compared to water in Perth
out of your tap at around a dollar a kiloliter,
which is what it costs from reverse osmosis on the coast.
What gets interesting
is that our competitors on the Swan Coastal Plain are paying $7 a kiloliter.
So our cost of water is - is a fraction of - of our competitors.
Our network of proven regenerative farmers across
the Wheat Belt will be key to our success,
particularly in the revitalization of communities.
Our populations have been diminishing
and we need to find new ways to bring people back out into the Wheat Belt
to revitalize their communities.
We're losing sporting facilities, schools, all those infrastructures
that are important to really make rural communities tick.
So farms are going to continue to get bigger, with the broad acre farms that we have,
so we need to be inventive and look for new agriculture industries
that can really bring a lot of people back into the Wheat Belt
and re-energize the Wheat Belt.
From a farming perspective, we're looking at increasing our productivity
and production base and we require capital to do that.
And part of what makes Wide Open Agriculture attractive to us is the recognition
that they are looking for sustainable and regenerative agricultural projects
and that fits exactly into what we do.
The conventional farming is quite recipe-based.
And you can - you can doll a recipe, but once you change into the region or you -
for better use of a word, farming practices, it's - suddenly you're back,
you're looking at your land,
you're walking the land and you're actually being a farmer again.
A lot of people would think what we do is very different,
but it's actually not that different.
It's just - have a few principles,
have a few guidelines and change of the way you do a few things.
And look at things from a different angle.
Moving forward, the first step is to acquire more land in the Wheat Belt.
We'll look to do that over the coming months and obviously, the years to come as well.
Beyond that, in the middle of next year, we're looking to list on the stock exchange.
And this is the part that we're really excited about.
In the meantime,
we'll continue to develop our first intensive horticulture project here in Arthur River
and we'll also continue to expand our other projects across the Wheat Belt.
We'll bring hope and inspiration to rural communities
as well as providing new opportunities for people who have come to this country
in search of a better future.