Demand Prompts Call For Agricultural Expertise

The Age

Monday October 22, 2007

Philip Hopkins, Agribusiness Reporter

UNIVERSITY heads have called on the political parties to support agriculture's future as new research shows demand for agricultural experts will grow by 36 per cent over the next six years.

The deans of agriculture at Australia's universities said that none of the major parties had recognised that the future of rural development, food security and the rural environment depended on agriculture's ability to adapt to markets and climate change.

"Adaptation is already occurring in agriculture. Some growers have made two-tonne grain crops off only 170 millimetres of rain that in the past would have led to crop failure, " said Les Copeland, dean of Sydney University's Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

Professor Copeland said Sydney University's research had shown that demand for people with agricultural and natural resource management (NRM) skills would rise by 36 per cent over the next six years.

This was the equivalent of 123,000 agriculture-related jobs.

Graduates in agricultural science and economics, and NRM would be needed to cope with policies for carbon capture, water management, farming in new regions, and the use of biofuels.

Professor Copeland said productivity growth had accounted for the increase in agricultural output over the past 30 years.

Services to agriculture grew by 70 per cent from 1984-85 to 2001-02, with science, engineering and technology graduates in agriculture growing by 57 per cent from 1996-97 to 2004-05.

"(This category) is forecast to grow by a further 36 per cent in the period from 2004-05 to 2012-13," he said.

Other key findings of the research were:

? Graduate salaries range up from $55,000 per annum, but graduates often get higher packages to relocate to rural and regional areas, and can obtain overseas jobs.

? Most Sydney University agriculture graduates are offered jobs before they complete their course.

Professor Copeland said that, despite these excellent prospects, student numbers in agriculture and NRM had been dropping because of the misperception that agriculture was declining.

For this reason, the deans of agriculture had called on the political parties to promote a vision for agriculture and not just promote short-term incentives to abandon farming, he said.

"Governments must increase their support for science training in primary and secondary schools," Professor Copeland said.

© 2007 The Age

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