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Tertiary agricultural education in the 21st century needs to equip graduates with the appropriate skills to embrace productivity, profitability and environmental sustainability.

According to Winthrop Professor Alan Robson, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Western Australia (UWA), to be a competent agriculturist requires not only knowledge of plant and animal biology, but also soil physics and chemistry, environmental science and management, agricultural business and marketing, communications skills, computer science and other information technologies.

Addressing UWA Institute of Agriculture’s 4th annual industry forum, ‘Agriculture Education for the Future’ on the subject of training future agricultural professionals, he said modern tertiary agricultural education needed to provide a strategic training pathway for capacity building  for the agriculture and food sectors.

“As educators, we must produce graduates with scientific, management and communication skills, but who also understand regional and global commercial and environmental realities.

“While skills of integration have become as valuable as skills of analysis and reductionism, mathematical and computational skills are increasingly important where meaningful integration relies on mathematical and bio-physical modelling.

“It is therefore vital that we highlight, in a positive, understandable way, how agricultural science and technology is keeping us at the forefront of world innovation and discovery,” Professor Robson said.

UWA, for example, strongly contributed to the international investigation of climate change, from monitoring sheep methane output to decreasing the amount of nitrous oxide in the soil.

UWA’s Institute of Agriculture was the only institution in Australia to receive funding in December last year from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as part of the Climate Change Research Program for research into all three greenhouse gas areas – methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.

Dr Natasha Teakle of Cunderdin, a post-doctoral Fellow at UWA’s Centre for Ecohyrdrology with Professors Tim Colmer and Ed Barrett-Lennard, while also lecturing part-time at Sydney University, also addressed the forum, saying that her 4th Year honours studies in agricultural science at UWA gave her the practical and communication skills employers required.

“I now enjoy promoting agriculture and agricultural science to high school students and believe the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UWA needs to attract more diverse undergraduates, including more from rural and non-rural areas,” Dr Teakle said.

Originally from Southern Cross and now from Arthur River, under-graduate student Sarah Panizza, who is doing a double degree in agricultural science and commerce, said studying agricultural science at UWA helped her “think outside the square”.

“Also, UWA Institute of Agriculture has exposed me to parts of the faculty beyond just academics and this has been an amazing opportunity. I’m excited about choosing an interesting topic for my 4th year project,” Ms Panizza explained.

WA Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) Director General, Rob Delane, a UWA agricultural science graduate and post-graduate, addressed the forum, saying global challenges facing agriculture included skills shortage, population growth, food production and climate change.

“To meet some of these challenges we need to identify the changes that will help profit, job creation and wealth, for example.

“Young people in agriculture today need diverse skills and adaptability and there is a greater demand for more educated people to give us an international competitive advantage.

“Some of the skills are communication, technical, analytical, farm management and, importantly for today’s forum, the ability to apply, in a practical sense, the science,” Mr Delane said.

Coorow, WA grain grower Rod Birch of 'Catalina Farms' said today's successful broadacre farmers engaged with a range of professionals, with diverse skill sets, to help profitably and sustainably direct and manage what are often multi-million dollar businesses.

"We tap into specialists to access the best possible advice for financial planning, accounting, grain trading, agronomy and marketing, for example.

"Effectively, the modern farmer no longer farms in isolation and we also now enjoy the benefits of internet access for when we need immediate answers or information.

"I like the direction UWA is taking its Institute of Agriculture and Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and believe WA should have only one world class tertiary level agricultural science degree course and that should be at UWA, which plans to produce more flexible graduates who will be of even greater value to our farm businesses," Mr Birch said.

Enrolments in UWA’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences surged almost 10 per cent in 2009, to top off a half decade of growth that saw numbers swell to about 700 full time students.

Previous UWA Institute of Agriculture annual industry forums covered the following topics:
2009: ‘Healthy Farming – Stronger Communities?’
2008: ‘2020 Vision – The Face of WA Broadacre Farming’
2007: ‘Innovations in Animal Production to Meet Consumer Expectations’

Media references

Authorised by ‘The UWA Institute of Agriculture’ and issued on its behalf by
Brendon Cant & Associates (+61) 8 9384 1122

Prof Kadambot Siddique, The UWA IOA Director (+61) 8 6488 7012/(+61) 04 11 155 396