When you hear the word "agriculture," you may think of only farms and ranches. In fact, farms and ranches account for only about 10 percent of the industry. Today, there are approximately 22 million people in agriculture-related fields and this number is expected to keep growing. So what types of careers exist in this field? What type of education is needed? What is the job outlook?
Types of Careers
There are many categories of agricultural careers and they fall into one of the following: agribusiness management, agriculture and natural resources communications, building construction management, agriscience, resource development and management, parks, tourism and recreation resources, packaging, horticulture, forestry, food science, and fisheries and wildlife.
Examples of such jobs are agriculture production specialist, marketing communications for agriculture business such as the USDA or dairy/grain companies, land developer, agriscience educator, environmental analyst, park ranger, packaging engineer, horticulturist, forest ranger, food chemist or technician, water quality specialist, animal husbandry or veterinarian. This is not an exhaustive list.
Education
Unless you are a person who owns or has family that runs a farm or ranch and can thus get hands-on training, you will need to take a formal education route. From technical courses at vocational schools to two- and four-year degree programs, the amount of schooling required will vary upon the career you intend to pursue. Most accredited programs highly recommend or require an internship of some sort before graduation. Degrees range from a certificate of completion to a bachelor's or master's degree. Also, there are unions, clubs and national organizations dedicated to the advancement of careers in agriculture such as the National FFA Organization, formerly known as the Future Farmers of America, and members range from age eleven to adult.
Career Outlook
Every year approximately 33,000 students graduate from agriculture, life science, forestry and veterinary programs. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, these jobs will decline by 8 percent over the 2006-to-2016 time period with the invention of more productive machinery, eliminating the need for the same number of manual workers.
That being said, jobs still exist such as those listed above; however, people intending to enter the agricultural field will have to think outside of the box. With the skills attained from strong preparatory programs, agricultural workers will always persevere.
