AN impressive 25,000 downloads, more than 70 episodes and more than 20 countries - that's the reach Generation Ag has achieved since launching just one year ago and last Friday night, co-host Kayla Evans was recognised for her passion and dedication to the podcast and agriculture in general.
Ms Evans, who founded the Generation Ag podcast alongside agricultural social media specialist Lavinia Wehr in October last year, won the Elders Agricultural Achievement Award at the 7News Young Achiever Awards WA, recently held at the Hyatt Regency.
She is committed to uniting primary industries and started the podcast to celebrate stories of people working in all areas of agriculture, with a focus on the next generation.
Ms Evans said that leading up to the event, she was incredibly nervous which is very uncharacteristic for her.
"It was overwhelming to be called out as the winner, my heart jumped out of my chest and it felt like all the blood left my head," Ms Evans said.
"It was so incredible to have everyone important around me at the time and it was such a huge acknowledgment of what has been a massive 12 months of work.
"I'd love to thank Elders for their sponsorship of the award and for platforming young people in agriculture because it's so important."
The podcast hopes to bridge the rural-urban divide while tackling bigger issues such as gender issues in agriculture and mental health.
But for this duo, the podcast is all about the people and the community, that's why they started the podcast and it's why they'll keep going with it.
"It's so much more than just a podcast, it's not just about putting out episodes, it's about meeting like-minded people and every single week we get to chat to a new young person who is just smashing goals and achieving the most incredible things," Ms Evans said.
"So many people reach out and say thank you for sharing these stories because they never would have learnt about it if it wasn't for our platform.
"For us it's about finding the next amazing person, platforming them and giving them the opportunity to share their story, it's truly a privilege to be the conduit for so many young people to connect."
Rationalising their decision, the 15-person panel of judges said that they recognised the challenge involved in setting up a podcast from an ag background, rather than media.
"Kayla has made a significant contribution to agriculture, by portraying a positive image of the industry to the wider community," the judges said.
"They are collaborating with industry, for example The Livestock Collective, as well as public engagement through their podcasts and feedback."
Moving to the future, Generation Ag has plans for more episodes, a second podcast and hopefully some travel in 2020.
"We'll keep podcasting absolutely, we've got Farmers and Charmers starting this week and we're wrapping up our RRR Network series in a couple of weeks," Ms Evans said.
"Next year, border openings permitting, we'd love to start getting out and visiting some of our listeners, getting into their communities and finding out more about them."
