The SA Agriculture Bureau hosted the 2021 Spirit of Excellence in Agriculture Awards at Evanston on Friday night where Emily Buddle, Eudunda, won the Rural Youth Bursary and Jasmin Piggott won the Sustainable Ag Scholarship.
The $5000 Rural Youth Bursary, sponsored by PIRSA, was won by Ms Buddle, who has started a consulting business, ellimatta.consulting to aid individuals to find their best potential.
"Winning the award was a sign I am heading in the right direction to pursue what I am passionate about and which is to support regional and rural communities," she said.
"The award has given me confidence that I have hit a nerve and identified a gap that was worthwhile pursuing.
"I think to have an organisation like the Ag Bureau that has such a long standing history in Agriculture in SS to recognise my goals and my ambitions and to be awarded this speaks wonders."
Sponsored by the Department of Environment and Water, the Sustainable Agriculture Scholarship of $8000 was awarded to Jasmin Piggott, Cowell, who felt very honoured.
"I am excited for where the scholarship is going to take me," she said.
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"The goal is to create an event centre on-property, to host meetings and workshops and even weddings or birthday parties.
"It will also allow us to showcase and highlight what we are doing on-property but also what the Eyre Peninsula region can produce with different meats and seafoods locally."
Ms Piggott says with the scholarship she will apply for a globally-recognised cut flower course to learn the production of cut flowers and soil health and how she can best adapt the farm for the best production.
"The sustainability on farm comes from starting the native flower farm in creating another form of income for our mixed cropping and livestock production so when drought hits again there's something else there to draw upon," she said.
"The native flowers and foliage will be available to the public but for now we are selling bunches locally to shops and once I have enough production, we will sell wholesale to florists."
Emma Knowles, Loxton, was named the Lois Harris Scholarship winner after she obtained a TER of 99.7 per cent.
The $2000 scholarship is sponsored by the Bureau and is given to the first year student undertaking a Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Adelaide who obtained the highest TER of the scholars.
With the scholarship funds, Ms Knowles would like it to contribute to her course fees.
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