A NEW partnership between Riverine Plains and Alvan Blanch Australia will aim to encourage people from non–farming backgrounds into an agricultural career in the local area.

Riverine Plains chief executive officer Catherine Marriott said the initiative, which includes two scholarships for individuals moving to the sector without previous experience, would open up a range of career opportunities.

The scholarships are targeted towards students with an interest in engineering or crop production, and include a $5000 bursary as well as work experience and mentoring opportunities.

"Agriculture offers a diverse, almost limitless, range of career opportunities and we need to attract the best and brightest students to the region to support local businesses, irrespective of background," Ms Marriott said.

"We are thrilled that Alvan Blanch Australia, who are most well known in our region for their supply of grain drying equipment to farmers, are partnering with us to invest in the young people who will one day help farmers innovate and improve their businesses."

Alvan Blanch Australia will also be a platinum partner at the Riverine Plains 2023 Innovation Conference, set to be held in July.

The company's regional sales manager, Jim Duncan, said his experiences growing up on a farm in the United Kingdom ahead of his move to Australia more than two decades ago had influenced his desire to support rural farming in whatever way he could.

"When we first moved here, we were impressed with how advanced farmers were across all areas of business," he said.

"We still feel the same today and want to support farming in the country that we now call home.

"Meeting people and talking about what they do is vital to our business – talking is the first step, while innovation and continuous improvement is key to the future of farming, so the innovation conference is a great fit for us."

Applications for the Alvan Blanch scholarships, along with the John Hanrahan, Corteva and Uncle Tobys scholarships, are open from March 15 to June 15, 2023.

More information is available from www.riverineplains.org.au/donations–and–scholarships.