Sarah Crain wants to get the message out that there’s more to agriculture than being a farmer.
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Ms Crain is one of the entrants in the 2017 Dubbo Show’s Rural Achievers Competition.
The Dubbo Show Society said the Rural Achiever Competition aimed to find the person most suited to represent young, regional men and women of NSW.
Like the Showgirl, the entrants are judged on their personality, confidence, knowledge and presentation.
The Rural Achiever would be an ambassador for the Dubbo Show Society, Ms Crain said, and promote agriculture to the young people of the region.
“There’s more you can be than just a stablehand. You could be a manager on a farm to a vet to a professor. I want to be be able to let people know that there are opportunities out there,” Ms Crain said.
“The world has to have food. Farming will always be there.”
However, it was not without its challenges.
“Our biggest concern at the moment is finding a way to produce food on mass. The population is increasing and the valuable agricultural land is shrinking,” Ms Crain said.
As a relatively new member of the Dubbo community, the 27-year-old said she decided to enter the competition to build connections within the agriculture industry and meet new people.
“I’ve been wanting to enter in one of the competitions for quite some time but the showgirl had the age limit,” Ms Crain said.
“In years gone by I didn’t think it was worth to join at that point and I wasn’t in the right place. Now it seems all the stars have aligned.”
Ms Crain said she also felt as though she now had the experience to back her views.
The Rural Achiever entrant works at Fletchers International Exports in the quality assessment management team. It’s a position Ms Crain said she had held since January, following a cadetship with the company.
The Rural Achiever Competition is growing rapidly across NSW. More than 50 people enter the event annually through their local shows.
As well as the networking and travel opportunities the Rural Achiever also receives about $3000 in prizes.
The Dubbo Show Rural Achiever will be announced on Saturday, prior to the official opening to the show.