Just like we grow our crops we must grow our people’ solving ag’s workforce challenge

From paddock to classroom and boardroom – these experts say there’s some hard truths to face and innovative action needed to address the current workforce challenges. 

Challenge traditional stereotypes about what it means to work in agriculture

It might surprise you to hear that the school with the highest cohort of students studying agriculture isn’t a rural high school with sheep and chickens on an ag plot – it’s in the heart of the city. 

In 10 years as head of Agriculture at Barker College in Sydney, Scott Graham has shown his students innovation, technology and the breadth of career options in the ag sector – a strategy that’s seen a four-fold increase in the number of students studying agriculture. 

Scott’s challenging the sector to create pathways for metropolitan agriculturalists. 

“Around 30 per cent of jobs are on farm, while 40 per cent are off-farm in regional areas, and 20 to 30 per cent are based in cities, often in high tech, agribusiness or supply chain roles,” he said. 

“However, metropolitan Australians, who make up the majority of the population, don’t see themselves as part of this workforce.” 

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Mic Black is Co-Founder of Rainstick, a startup focused on electrically influenced seeds for sustainable crop yields and nitrogen usage efficiency. 

He explained there’s competition for the best and brightest tech minds – so agriculture needs to sell itself. 

“We have an image problem in ag. A lot of the marketing materials show images of a mature age farmer squinting at the sunset in a field. Yes, while this is still an important part of agricultural, ag is also food science, biomanufacturing, biology, physics, chemistry and more. It’s many things that students are interested to learn about, applied in a practical sense to feed the nation,” he said. 

Dial up diversity and look at lifestyle to attract and retain workers

Co-owner of the Queensland-based Leather Cattle Company, Melinee Leather said agriculture is often viewed as isolated, physically demanding and lacking diversity. 

“We often blame the workforce crisis or external forces, the resources boom, climate change, unpredictable markets and the government. But let’s be honest, the problem isn’t just external it’s internal.” 

She points out workforce statistics from Australia’s red meat and livestock sector. 

“Only a third of these people are female, 2 per cent are Indigenous Australians, and 40 per cent are aged over 55,” she said. 

Melinee said the sector needs to “attract families not just workers” with a focus on connectivity, education, healthcare, childcare and partner opportunities.  

Chief executive of agribusiness Mort & Co, Stephen O’Brien also highlighted the challenge of attracting and retaining women in agriculture. 

“Out of the new university enrolments in agriculture 56 per cent of them are women but we have a workforce that’s 31 per cent of female, so there’s a leakage there,” he said. 

Innovative educator and founding CEO of Torrens University Australia, Linda Brown believes the pandemic tree-change shows there’s opportunity in targeting people who’ve got a taste for rural life. 

“Career changers and second careers is something that the agriculture should really target because they have the experience, the resilience, and want the lifestyle in different communities for their family,” she said. 

 “We could be very specific and target a very specific group of the population to pull them out into rural industries.” 

The sector needs bold, transformative ideas

General Manager at Seafood Industry Australia Julie Petty is concerned that innovation within Australia’s rural industries is being held back. 

“We have created a system that is too inward looking, too slow to act, and too risk averse, we’ve designed a structure that stifles bold ideas instead of championing them,” she said. 

“We must invest in workforce development and inspire the brightest minds to want to join our community. When we put people first, we don’t just build profitable industries, we build resilient, innovative and future-focused ones.” 

Bold thinking is something that entrepreneur Mic sees as a selling point for agriculture careers. 

“Risk is what excites the good talent,” he argued. “We keep trying to hide the risk but it’s the risk, the bigger, loftier goals, that actually gets the more passionate, more motivated people excited.” 

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As a leader in agribusiness, Stephen believes government needs to look beyond the election cycle in supporting the industry. 

“Our farmers, our processes, our producers, are not looking at the next three years. They’re looking at the next 20 years,’ he said. “Our governments are looking at the next term of election. So, we’ve got to take the shackles off industry and allow it to thrive.” 

Technology to empower but we need the right people to make it work

Co-Founder of innovative agritech company Agronomeye, Stu Adam believes “technology should empower not dictate”. 

He points to Agronomeye’s industry-first digital twin which helps landholders to unlock the full value of on-farm data, optimising profitability and natural capital.  

“When landholders have access to the right insights, they don’t just solve the problems they know about, they unlock opportunities they never thought possible,” he said. “This is the power of insight decision insight driven decision making.” 

Technology is also integral to Kalfresh, a vertically integrated horticulture business that supplies fresh vegetables to Australia, Asia, New Zealand, and the Middle East. 

CEO Richard Gorman said Kalfresh has invested $13 million in automation and that means people with a whole new skillset. 

“Talent doesn’t arrive ready made into agriculture. Like we grow our crops, we must grow our people,” he said.  

“That means educating on the run, no matter how many robots and automated systems that you have, or AI tools we bring in – you need a lot of smart people to operate them and still run the business.” 

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Scott Graham Barker College, Melinee Leather Leather Cattle Co. Richard Gorman Kalfresh, Stephen O’Brien Mort & Co., Linda Bown Torrens University, Julie Petty Seafood Industry Australia, Stu Adam Agronomeye and Mic Black Rainstick were part of a panel discussion ‘People first: The untold story driving agritech and agriculture’s future’ with facilitator Tim Hunt. Watch the recording here.