Pitch competition winners wow the judges with Agri-Tech careers app idea
Published:27 July 2020

Annie Tolman, Zoe Fairfull and Clara Tolman with the Alstonville High School competition steers
Three female students from Alstonville High School, NSW have won the national 2020 Women in Agri-tech Pitch Competition with their idea for an app called ‘Youth in Agriculture: Australia’s Future’.
The Agri-tech Pitch Competition offered small groups of female students in years 7-10 from remote, regional and rural Australia the opportunity to share in $5000 of prize money and attendance at an innovation bootcamp facilitated by tech incubator River City Labs.
The winning idea, an app designed by Clara Tolman, Annie Tolman and Zoe Fairfull from grades 9 and 10 at Alstonville State School, is aimed to entice students to consider a career in agriculture and link them to experiences and training opportunities in their region.
See the winning entry here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6A119BT1XY
Clara, Annie and Zoe used information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to identify a shortfall between the growing number of jobs within the agricultural industries and how many people are interested in filling those positions.
“The statistics show filling jobs in the industry is an increasing problem and we believe this will ultimately affect our ability, as a nation, to provide food security to the population,” Clara Tolman explained.
The students came up with the idea for the Youth in Agriculture app and then prepared a video pitch for the competition.
Women in Agri-tech researcher Dr Jaime Manning says the app idea was awarded first place as it was well researched and responded to an important issue within the agricultural industries.
Mr Holmes says the competition has been a great experience for his students.
Women in Agri-Tech is an initiative of CQUniversity Australia and funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.