Agriculture is the place to be

“I was wanting to make some sort of change and be able to follow my passions,” Holly said.

“Despite not knowing anything about the ag industry, I kind of took a leap of faith and started my degree.”

An Australian Farm Institute report has found there are more than 5000 entry-level positions available in agriculture but less than 900 students to fill them.

Jim Pratley from Charles Sturt University led the research and said more needed to be done to encourage students like Holly into the sector.

“We’re falling down big time in terms of engaging school kids in terms of understanding the job market,” he said.

Prof Pratley said part of the problem was that careers advisers were turning students away based on data suggesting a shortage of jobs. The figures combine agriculture and the environment.

“Separately agriculture has full employment and environment has 35 per cent unemployment,“ he said.

“Put them together and it comes out at 30 per cent unemployment.”

With the number of people studying agriculture at university well below what is needed, the push is on to get city students interested.

Barker College in Sydney is trying to engage students early in their schooling.

Agriculture classes at the north-shore school have grown from four to 23 in the past 10 years.

The school’s head of agriculture, Scott Graham, received the Prime Minister's Prize for Science in 2021 for his work getting more students engaged.

Jenna Wright is one former student now studying agriculture at the University of Sydney.

It was during her time at Barker College that her passion for agriculture was ignited.

The 22-year-old is now in her third year of an agricultural and science degree.

Jenna said despite not having connections other country kids might have, the opportunities were endless.

“There are so many different pathways you can take with it,” she said.

An agricultural scholarship is helping to pave the way for Jenna, who recently finished a work placement harvesting research crops.

A research paper published last year highlighted the lack of understanding about agriculture among Australian students.

With more than 5000 Australian primary and secondary students interviewed, it was the largest ever survey of its kind.

Amy Cosby from Central Queensland University led the study.

“What this study shows is that there is still that really strong perception that to work in agriculture you need to be a farmer,” Dr Cosby said.

As an educator and farmer, she knows first-hand the need to change perceptions.

“I want to make sure that young people understand all the careers that are available to them,” she said.

“We need to have a lot more support for agricultural programs and also ag teachers and people training ag teachers as well.”

Dr Cosby also leads a project exposing students to the industry through farm visits and other activities.

More than 1100 pupils from 28 schools took part in the program in 2022.

“We know from the research that young people develop their idea about a career very early on,” Dr Cosby said.

“It's too late to get school students when they're in Year 11 and 12 to convince them to have a career in ag.

“The earlier that you expose them to agriculture, the better chance we have.”