As Kilter Rural CEO Cullen Gunn explains, “We focus on improving Australian farmland and delivering returns while doing it. We work with investors – mainly based in urban centres – and deliver resources into under-capitalised rural regions.”

By 2050 it is estimated 50% more people will need to be fed, globally. Cullen believes to achieve this, the world’s current agricultural footprint must be stabilised and more food needs to be produced through the regeneration of existing, often degraded, farmland.

“Australia is in a really good position to do this. We are regenerating already highly modified, under-utilised farmland and remediating it for agricultural and conservation purposes,” Gunn says.

ANZ is supporting investment opportunities that achieve commercial, environmental and social outcomes and is providing around $5 million of working capital for Kilter Rural’s Australian Farmlands Fund (KAFF).

Established in 2018, the KAFF has a mandate to invest in a portfolio of irrigated farmland and water entitlements within the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

Up to 30% of farmland will be actively reforested for biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation outcomes. It aims to build long-term investor value through improving the condition of natural capital and earning payments for carbon sequestration.

To date, the fund has raised $44 million and purchased five farms in Northern Victoria which were under-utilised and considered unproductive in terms of financial and environmental outcomes.