Agricultural Education Requires Renewed Focus

Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Background

A Federal Parliamentary Committee recently released the findings from its inquiry into higher education and skills training to support agribusiness in Australia. It found more could be done to encourage students to study agriculture. Among its recommendations was a call for an inquiry to establish a higher education framework to support the implementation of the national food plan.

Comment

The report, issued by the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Reference Committee, included 11 recommendations to increase the number of people entering the agricultural sector, as well as the quality of the education offered. The inquiry was the result of a number of concerns raised by the industry, including the lack of a new generation of farmers to replace the ‘baby-boomers’ as they retire. In addition, the higher salaries offered by the mining sector are draining people away from the agricultural sector.

As the report rightly implied, providing a growing agricultural workforce will be a crucial element in Australia’s aim to develop a national food plan and ensure national food security.

The report also calls for a new industry peak body, to develop and present to government a national strategy for addressing the skills shortage, industry productivity and food security. It could be modelled on the Minerals Council of Australia, which many argue has successfully promoted the mining sector in a unified way. The committee made clear its desire for a similar peak body in the agri-world: “The committee is of the hope that following this report a body of similar strength, resilience and impact will be formed in order to represent all elements of agriculture and agribusiness in order to address the many challenges highlighted [in this report].”

Over the past year the Agribusiness Council of Australia has been working on developing such a peak organisation and has called for the inquiry into the agribusiness education sector over the past year is. At forums held in Canberra and Perth it successfully brought together politicians, farmers, financiers, insurance brokers and suppliers to discuss ways to encourage people into agribusiness.

While the report is a useful step forward and correctly identifies some of the issues faced by the agribusiness sector, clearly further work is required to ensure that it operates within the national food plan framework.

Gary Kleyn

Manager

Global Food and Water Security Programme

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