Making it easier to find a way in
For people who weren’t born into agriculture, the path into the industry can be less obvious.
Meleva Thorn knows both sides of regional life. A Murdoch University PhD candidate and journalist, she also helps on her family’s wheat and sheep farm in the WA Wheatbelt.
She said agriculture can remain heavily family based, with people often born into farming communities and exposed to regional life from an early age. For someone arriving from a city or overseas, isolation and fewer services can be barriers.
“You go out to the regions and it’s suddenly so isolated,” Thorn said.
She pointed to access to arts, culture and networking as among the things regional communities need to consider if they want to attract young people and families.
Jess Ryan, a NSW Farmers board member and chair of its Young Farmers Council who works on her family’s mixed farm at Harden, said the industry itself also has a role to play.
“We pride ourselves on being a community and welcoming new people and always being open to having more and more people come and get involved,” Ryan said. “But at the same time, a lot of us are very old school. We can be quite cliquey.”
Ryan looks to events, incentives and invitations into farming organisations, sporting clubs and other parts of regional life as ways to help people become involved.
Farmers for Climate Action Policy and Program Director Georgia Campbell also pointed to financial challenges for first farm buyers and the importance of giving people opportunities before they have years of industry experience.
“We need to start opening the door for people that might be that next crop of emerging leaders,” Campbell said.
Agriculture is much bigger than farming
The breadth of careers across modern agriculture extends well beyond traditional farming roles.
“Agriculture is more than farming. It’s banking, it’s lawyers, it’s other avenues of finance, it’s other avenues of business,” Ryan said.
Gardner has seen that change from inside a farm business, pointing to the growth of advisory and specialist roles.
“The amount of advisory and the amount of specialisation within the farming business is huge,” he said. “There are different touch points in agriculture now that allow huge opportunities for young people to step into.”
“Everyone I've come across who's ended up in agriculture through a weird or wonderful pathway has just raved about the industry,” added Campbell. “Look at the opportunities: I've been overseas with my agricultural work. I've been across the country, I'm down in Canberra speaking to politicians. We need to be better at promoting that - it's not a hard sell at all.”
A passionate advocate for growing the next generation in Australian agriculture, CommBank General Manager Regional and Agribusiness Banking Natasha Greenwood agrees.
“Who wouldn’t want to be part of an industry that’s so strong in innovation, that’s talking about AI, that’s talking about productivity and profitability and how we can actually grow and be successful together?” Greenwood said.
Dr Roberta Marcoli is an example of just how far those opportunities can extend.
An agricultural scientist and science communicator at James Cook University, she describes herself simply as a “fish nerd”.
Marcoli works in fish genetics, collaborating with the seafood industry to understand its challenges and find technological solutions that can help make it more sustainable, profitable and adaptable.
It wasn’t a career she knew existed when she was younger.
“I never thought that could be a career,” Marcoli said. “I think there are so many diverse jobs that probably young people don’t even think about. If you see somebody doing that role, then you can see yourself doing it.”
