Wanted: Workers to grow agritech
Industry aims to recruit high-tech candidates to drive farming revolution
Farming industry struggles to attract digital whizzes to next tech revolution.
To the uninitiated, it can be hard to imagine. Robots with fingers designed to pick mature tomatoes, among the most delicate of crops. A Fitbit-like collar that monitors the wellbeing of a cow. Drones with sensors to identify dry areas of a field or discover crop production inefficiencies.
“In 30 years, what we’re doing or seeing as innovative now will be viewed as tradition,” said Susan Duncan, associate director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station at Virginia Tech University.
Science and technology will be core to the farming revolution, which teachers and agricultural leaders envision as including robots, temperature and moisture sensors, aerial images and GPS technology, alongside big data that affects everyone — suppliers, farmers, traders, processors, retailers and consumers.
But agricultural educators and advocates are concerned about the future of agricultural education, given the industry’s broad needs and the lack of qualified job candidates. They say part of the problem is marketing: Most
people, including students, equate agriculture with farming. The industry gets limited media exposure, they said, but also needs to do a better job of promoting itself, particularly as high-tech.
“We rely on software developers probably as much as Silicon Valley does,” said Eric Haggard, director of human resources, talent management and diversity and inclusion at AGCO Corporation, a Duluth, Ga.-based agricultural equipment manufacturer.
The issue is important to states seeking to protect their agricultural interests and grow their economies. For example, in Virginia, agriculture and forestry are among the largest industries, according to Virginia Tech, with an annual economic impact of more than $91 billion and nearly 442,000 jobs.
Precision agriculture — using technology to take detailed measurements and adjust on the fly — is intended to boost the efficiency and productivity of the farm and the health of the land.
According to an April 2019 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, digital technologies that collect and analyze large amounts of data, typically by agribusinesses, researchers and public sector officials, can help inform decisions on how to fertilize for soil conditions, apply pesticides to targeted areas, use limited water resources effectively, and estimate the potential profit and economic risk in growing one crop over another.
Precision agriculture could even help address global challenges, such as how to feed a population the United Nations projects will reach
9.6 billion by 2050.
But too few college graduates have the skills employers need.
The food and agricultural production sectors influence more than 20 percent of the U.S. economy and 15 percent of U.S. employment, or 43.3 million jobs, according to a report from Virginia Tech University and Tyson Foods. To be sure, digital technologies already have made an impact.
But if farms and producers had the digital technologies and expertise they needed, the United States could boost economic benefits by nearly 18 percent of total agriculture production, based on 2017 levels, according to the USDA report. That’s $47 billion to $65 billion annually in additional gross economic benefits.
The USDA report recommends colleges equip a new workforce for careers in high-value technology. Occupations focused on food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and the environment will need about 57,900 college graduates a year through 2020, but as of 2015, only about 35,400 available candidates graduated, according to a 2015 report from the USDA and Purdue University
But agriculture can be a tough sell to students when other flashy majors are competing for attention. Engineering programs, for example, often have ample resources and funding.
“It’s very hard to tangibly hand somebody a piece of agriculture and say, ‘That’s why you should be in this industry,’”Bsaid Karl Binns Jr., lead development officer and former recruiter for the School of Agriculture and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, a historically black university.