Wanted: Digital whizzes to work in ag
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 in Blacksburg.
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, Georgia-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% of the U.S. economy and 15% 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% 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 highvalue 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 in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“People coming out of the communities really understand the farmer, and that colors the way they’re going to think about building the technology that suits the needs of the farmers,” said Sara Williams, head of recruiting at Farmers Business Network, a fast-growing agronomic information startup.
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. Computer science academies can give students computers, said 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.
"It’s very hard to tangibly hand somebody a piece of agriculture and say, ‘That’s why you should be in this industry,’” Binns said.
Binns and others said the agricultural industry can feel insular and difficult to break into for those who didn’t grow up on a farm, in a rural area or with an industry connection.
While there are efforts to expand the representation of farmers and agricultural professionals, the industry continues to be racially homogenous: Roughly 95% of agricultural producers are white, though the number of female producers grew by roughly 27% from 2012 to 2017, according to the 2017 agriculture census.
“Outside of the racial disparity, whenever you go to these agricultural conferences, it’s always people who are already on team ag,” Binns said. “If you’re only talking to people who agree with you, you’re not reaching a new audience.”
States vary in their support of agricultural education. In Maryland, for example, there are 56 high school agricultural education programs among 235 high schools, according to the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, a ratio that advocates say is typical for states.
A House bill supported by the Maryland Farm Bureau that would encourage each county board of education to start an agricultural education program that includes integrated classroom and laboratory instruction failed for the second year to pass the state Senate, though in both years it passed unanimously in the House.
"We get a lot of bills in our committee, and we’re kind of saying that if it doesn’t take us forward, if it doesn’t do anything, if it’s just a feel-good, we shouldn’t make it law,” said Maryland state Sen. Ron Young, a Democrat from rural Frederick County who voted against the bill because it would not mandate the changes.