Jodi Duncan

A world where intergenerational farm transfer is just part of business

Western Australian mixed farmer Jodi Duncan knows firsthand the complexity of intergenerational transfer of farming businesses. For family members with an intellectual or physical disability there is an extra layer of complexity to the discussions. 

Jodi runs the 8,500-hectare family farm at Ravensthorpe, WA alongside her brother, and says their own business transfer was achieved successfully and fairly.

Farming business transfers that are fair, but not necessarily equal, have occupied Jodi’s mind for more than a decade. She says she wants to remove barriers in agriculture to people with disabilities and find ways to include them in family farm businesses. This goes further than allocating a role, she says, to ensure people’s needs are accounted for in the long term, without taking away from the core farming business. Jodie says the outcome needs to be financially stable and emotionally cohesive.

Her study itinerary for her research, "Inter-generational farm business transfer: equity, equality and care” will gauge feedback  in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and New Zealand, where she says there are operations that navigate the complexity between business and family, and provide clarity around entry and exit from the business.