Farm jobs of the future will require more skill

Agriculture has long been the light at the end of the unemployment tunnel, but substantial interventions are needed to ensure that this sector will continue its favourable track record in future.

The Future of Work study, conducted by the Stellenbosch Business School Institute for Futures Research (IFR) at Stellenbosch University, shows that as the agriculture sector modernises, employment opportunities will expand, rather than contract. The type of labour required, however, will need to be more skilled.

Speaking at the recent launch of the report, Doris Viljoen, director of the IFR, said job creation would need to be supported by education initiatives to address the skills shortage. It also needed to be ensured that the necessary support structures and capabilities were in place to make the sector sustainable.

“While technology is reducing the number of on-farm jobs being created in agriculture, it’s creating new opportunities that are not as closely tied to the use of agricultural land, or as climate-dependent. Both of these aspects may enable easier and faster labour gains than have been the case to date in landbased agricultural reform, provided that a coherent and strategic approach can be adopted to develop the opportunities.”

She noted that a more enabling regulatory environment and greater market access for exports were two areas where improvements could lead to more jobs.

Uncertainty about how the agriculture industry would take shape in years to come meant that the extent of job opportunities remained unpredictable.

“The big question is how the composition of the sector will change. Will we be seeing more megafarmers, or a greater concentration of small-scale farmers? Will farms be technologically driven, or will the shift to carbon-neutrality have an impact on how we farm?”

Theo Boshoff, CEO of Agbiz, said carbon-neutrality would play a larger role in determining the size of the sector.

“Even before the COVID-19 [pandemic], the global movement towards a lower carbon economy created the expectation that the economy of the future would be driven by green sectors.

“Within the South African context, a quarter of our country’s employment is derived from carbon-intensive industries. Agriculture and tourism are seen as the two primary sectors that will need to create employment as opportunities in carbon-intensive sectors decline over time.

“This places significant pressure on the agriculture sector, and it’s important to understand the type and scope of jobs that will be required by the sector as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“To remain internationally competitive, the sector has embraced technology, automation and big data to improve efficiencies. This will have a direct impact on the labour market and the demand for skills.”

Good news highlighted by the study was that more younger people were being drawn into agriculture by alternative farming activities such as vertical farming, aquaculture, and the restoration of degraded land.