"I thought, 'It's not too hard to write a 1500 word essay; I'll give it a go,'" she said.
Ms Crofoot has completed a Bachelor of AgriCommerce at Massey University, Palmerston North, and graduated with 1st Class Honors.
She has also completed a post-graduate course in International Trade and Agri Food, half of which was completed while studying at the University of Missouri in the United States.
Essay competition entrants were asked to outline their "position and ideas on the underlying causes of food insecurity".
The quality of the answers impressed Bayer New Zealand managing director Holger Detje, who also heads Bayer New Zealand's CropScience division.
Dr Detje said the "outstanding" essay answers "provide a great platform" for further discussions.
He said there was a need for young leaders to be engaged in finding "sustainable agricultural solutions" to global food demand.
The summit was an opportunity to "broaden perspectives from others around the world" and to grow young leaders, he said.
The New Zealand delegation will be accompanied by a mentor and once in Canberra will network, attend seminars and participate in debates, discussions, group-work and industry tours.
For her winning essay answer Ms Crofoot said she had been required to give a New Zealand perspective, and she had highlighted "all the productivity gains and efficiency gains" the country has achieved in agriculture.
She argued that production in the countries which do it most efficiently, such as New Zealand, should be encouraged by removing tariffs so trade was "not restricted by political agendas".
Ms Crofoot spoke of the world as "one integrated system" of food supply and consumption, which does grow enough food, but there is "wasteage along the supply chain".
She said there is also room for "regenerating those (practical) skills" of reusing instead of discarding food at a local level, and stressed the importance of "manag(ing) soils appropriately" - in what is now the United Nations International Year of Soils.
Ms Crofoot said some of the delegates have already connected on social media ahead of the conference next month.
She is looking forward to meeting people from all around the world, and is especially interested in seeing some of the "incredibly innovative" solutions that often arise in less agriculturally developed nations.
"We've all got the same challenges ahead of us," Ms Crofoot said.
