Experts encourage new farmers to pursue technological skills

Syngenta offers internships to help young people become immersed in all things agriculture.
Syngenta offers internships to help young people become immersed in all things agriculture. | File photo

Young people who have just graduated high school are already starting to work and focus on their family farm.

Some of these recent graduates may also support the agricultural industry by starting a career as a scientist, salesperson or agronomist. Whichever career these young people chose, experts advise they continue to learn as much as they can about agriculture and stay up to date with relevant technology.

“Change is happening so fast in agriculture,” Danny Klinefelter, an agriculture economist Texas A&M University. “It will take a broad education to keep up to speed on these tools. If your farm business is going to succeed, your management must continue to learn, improve and adapt to the leading edge of the competition, or it will fall behind.”

Syngenta offers internships to help young people become immersed in all things agriculture.

“The three main skills we look for in a sales intern, for example, are business acumen, knowledge of sales and insight into agronomy,” Jenny Heaton, head of talent development and talent acquisition at Syngenta, said. “I believe there are high school students today who will likely take agricultural jobs out of college that haven’t even been established as careers quite yet. The industry is moving fast.”