Stepping out in support of farmers

Finishing a gruelling 150km journey across the Fitzgerald River National Park is just the beginning for Nick Kelly in raising awareness of the challenges farmers face in the Wheatbelt.

Completing the run last month over two days, he has raised $2500 for the cause.

"Fundraising will be ongoing … it was a challenging run but worth every minute of it," he said.

The challenge came about after the creation of the Wheatbelt Integrity Group this year.

The group comprises farmers, agribusiness owners and specialists in the field of politics and media.

According to Mr Kelly, the group want to develop different options for farm finance.

"We are seeing the number of family farms shrink in the region and existing financial policies are making it a challenge for farmers to stay in the industry," he said.

Member for Eyre Dr Graham Jacobs hosted the first meeting earlier this year and said he was amazed by Mr Kelly's achievements.

Dr Jacobs said the next step is to continue accruing funds to use experts in the legal sector.

"It's important we raise a pool of money so we can use those funds to hire some experts, use legal experts, for instance, in order to look at issues around lending, the Corporations Act and the Code of Practice for banks," he said.

"We want to look at how we can essentially set up a business risk management plan for family farming."

Although he found the trek gruelling and rewarding at the same time, Mr Kelly was unsure if the event, formally known as the Lou Athan Challenge, would be annual.

"We are thinking of making it more of a group challenge in the future. We would take more time and get more people involved," he said.

Dr Jacobs has been vocal in taking up the cause for farmers in financial hardship.

"The Wheatbelt Integrity Group are about saying we (growers) are here," he said.

"We think it's an important industry and we are important to you, we need to supply food and an export income.

"We also need to maintain farming because of the whole issue of food security and it's also about making people, in particular city people, aware that … it's great to have a booming State, but we can't eat iron ore."