Rural advisers with stickability needed

Employers want skills, but they also want people to work for them, that can drive up and talk to farmers. Professor Mike Hedley

The rural industry needs new professionals who can talk to farmers and help them with their environmental management and then stick to a job, says the head of the Fertilizer and Lime Research Centre, Professor Mike Hedley.

Hedley said a strong need for rural professionals to be able to talk to farmers and stay in the job for long enough to build up some trust between them emerged at the centre’s conference last week attended by 250 people.

‘‘Everybody on the panel regional council people and fertiliser companies, said new people needed to provide continuity and integrity. Often people go and work for a fertiliser company, find out how it works, then go to a bank or go to work for somebody else.

‘‘Employers want skills, but they also want people to work for them, that can drive up and talk to farmers.’’

The government believes there will need to be thousands of new people to make the rural sector viable in the future.

Hedley said Massey University was meeting the needs of rural employers had changed courses in agriculture and agri-science to meet the needs of students and industry.

‘‘Both our agricultural degrees and environmental management degrees have changed over time. What used to be simple soil science, soil testing and fertiliser trials. It is now all about environmental management.’’

He said students still get taught the basics and how ro run a farm, but it was targeted to the skills the rural professionals needed.

Hedley said people come and do a traditional agriculture degree, but come back and do further study, such as nutrient management and nutrient planning.

‘‘But the industry wants us to take people who trained in environmental science and teach them farm management. So they can go out and work with farm systems. If a farmer needs five consultants to solve an problem, then that will cost a lot.’’

They want one person who can do environmental planning and know the impact on the farm system.

Hedley said they were discussing a national accreditation scheme for rural consultants. He said they could through continuing education, pick up all the skills they needed.

‘‘Perhaps in time one individual will have all the skills. There are a few smart farm consultants out there who have done additional courses and they have been around for awhile, who have all the skills. The regional councils know who they are and are giving most of their work to them. We just need more people like them.’’