About 27 percent of these job opportunities will be in science, technology, engineering and math. An average of nearly 60,000 high-skilled ag and related job openings are expected annually over the next five years, with only about 35,000 grads in food, ag, renewable resources or the environment graduating each year to fill them, according to the study. Department of Agriculture and Purdue University found that there's high demand for college graduates with agricultural degrees.
But there is a growing need for more employees with agricultural expertise in addition to technology skills.Ī report published by the U.S. Many of the initial jobs are being filled by workers coming from outside the traditional farming industry: Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in software, big data and hardware experts in drone and satellite imagery research scientists from leading universities. Opportunities abound for high-skilled workersĪs the agricultural industry embraces technological advances, it is demanding a new, highly skilled workforce. "It's a bright future for technology and farmers that use it," Boeck said. Its Encirca Services are used by more than 2,500 farmers to monitor about 2 million acres of land, said Eric Boeck, marketing director of the service. DuPont Pioneer offers data analytics services through a digital platform to help farmers maximize yield and reduce risk. Monsanto acquired The Climate Corp., which provides real-time data on farm conditions for more than $900 million in 2013.
Investment in food and agriculture technology start-ups reached $4.6 billion in 2015, nearly double 2014 levels, with particular boosts in irrigation technology, food e-commerce and precision agriculture using drones and robotics.Īgricultural giants, like Monsanto, DuPont Pioneer and Syngenta, are also investing in agtech.
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"The complexity of agriculture lends itself to folks who are also interested in software and systems," Cox said.Ĭountless start-ups, like Food Origins, which uses the Internet of Things to provide precision harvest data and AquaSpy, which uses data to guide irrigation decisions, are starting to fill the ag space. Silicon Valley is slowly making its way onto the farm, with coders, analysts and entrepreneurs eager to use their skills in the agricultural sector. The agricultural industry is looking for more people like Cox to tackle that complexity.Īs farming becomes increasingly data-centered, industry players from family farms to large-scale growers are turning to experts in engineering, software development and data science to help guide their decisions. "It's actually quite a bit more complex." "Agriculture isn't rocket science," said Cox, head of research and development for Tuckaway Farm. With an undergraduate degree in international agriculture and world development from Cornell, a doctorate in natural resources and Earth system science from the University of New Hampshire and a background in software, Cox has embraced research and technology as a way to manage the intricacies of running a farm.
"They need to adopt as much technology as they can to both collect and analyze data." "All producers are realizing that agriculture is now a data-driven industry," said Daniel Schmoldt, a program leader at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. New technology can even be used to send automatic text alerts to farmers in the field when a situation requires their immediate attention. He uses software to analyze that data and guide agricultural decisions, like when to have an animal graze over certain land or apply nutrient sprays on particular crops. He is also exploring the use of drones to gather aerial data and environmental sensors to collect temperature, humidity and soil moisture information. The app is just one of the ways Cox is using technology to increase efficiency and raise profits at the family farm.
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