Supporting refugee farming initiatives in rural and regional Australia: This initiative evolved spontaneously from research led by University of Wollongong and University of Melbourne academics in partnership with a community-based food cooperative Food Next Door. The researchers were able to connect Burundi refugees and former refugees, who are ‘landless farmers’, with donated farmland and with Food Next Door and the Sunraysia Burundian Garden to grow culturally important crops.

These refugee farming initiatives are currently being established via support from research grants, private donors (in the form of land and grants to cover irrigation costs) and several hundred volunteer hours. The initiative began in 2016.  The initiative is open to supporting any refugees, or former refugees, with a desire to farm but without the means to afford access to farmland.