美国农业面临农业科学人才短缺

~U.S. agriculture faces shortage of trained scientists

May 20, 2014 Olivia McClure, LSU AgCenter | Southeast Farm Press

AGRICULTURE SCIENTIST Bob Kemerait (left), a UGA peanut specialist, speaks with attendees at the 2013 Georgia Peanut Tour.

Demand for food and fiber is booming as world population grows at an exponential rate. Ironically, the United States – the No. 1 exporter of agriculture products – is facing critical shortages of agriculture workers.

Leading domestic life science companies need to hire at least 1,000 trained ag scientists by 2015 to help meet changing global needs, according to a 2013 study by the Coalition for a Sustainable Agricultural Workforce. Nearly half of those hires need to hold doctoral degrees.

Despite high demand for these scientists, not enough university students are being trained fast enough in disciplines such as plant science and crop breeding, said Rogers Leonard, LSU AgCenter associate vice chancellor for plant and soil science programs. Many students are simply unaware of these opportunities for employment, partly because of stereotypes of agriculture in popular culture.

“A career in agriculture is not just about picking cotton or chopping weeds,” Leonard told a group of high schoolers at a recent youth field day. “Science and technology drive the new agriculture today.”

Even among children who grow up on farms, however, there has been a degradation of students wanting to go into agriculture, he said. Longer lifespans mean American farmers have gotten older and older in recent decades – in Louisiana, the average age of a farmer is 58.5, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture.

Because farmers don’t hand over the reins to the family business as soon as they once did, their children often look beyond agriculture to find employment, Leonard said.

The ag industry is running short on human capital at a time it is under pressure to be more efficient, which requires scientific innovation. The CSAW study reports “the pipeline of graduates … isn’t as full as it needs to be” and companies “anticipate challenges in finding quality applicants.”

Student recruitment at universities is part of fixing that problem. Incoming freshmen who are pondering majors need to know about the diverse opportunities available in agriculture, said Bill Richardson, LSU vice president for agriculture and dean of the College of Agriculture.

The college has renewed its focus on recruitment this semester, with representatives traveling throughout Louisiana to reach as many students as possible.