With the target of becoming a $100 billion industry by 2030, and carbon neutral by 2050, Australia's agriculture industry needs a lot to go right over the coming years to achieve this goal.
Chief among this is having an appropriately educated and trained workforce on-hand not only to spur the growth, but maintain it.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on the sector's dependence on an itinerant workforce, an era that appears to be over. Some in the industry prophecise that workforce requirements will decline, yet there is scant evidence of that happening any time soon. Demand for reliable employees continues to escalate.
There is no question that jobs are changing, but vacancies are not declining. The current supply of qualified people in agriculture remains steady, but the shortfall is about three quarters of what is needed.
So how can Australia's agriculture industry address the issue of labour supply – given that what's currently happening is not fit for purpose?
Jim Pratley is a Gulbali Fellow and Professor of Agriculture at Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga. He is a Fellow of the Australian Society of Agronomy and a CAWS (Council of Weed Societies) medallist. He participated in the 2020 Australian Agricultural Workforce Review, undertook the Ministerial Review into Agricultural Education and Training in NSW in 2013 and has written widely on agricultural education. He has edited 4 books on agronomy, written 27 chapters, and published > 100 journal papers and >100 conference papers. He is a long-serving Secretary of the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture and a Board Member of the Royal Agricultural Society Foundation. He was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2019 for services to agricultural education, research and advisory.
