I hope you’ve had enough rain to enjoy the lovely weather we’ve been having the last week. It’s one of my favourite times of the year in the Mallee when the crops start poking out of the ground and the paddocks turn green.
As I’ve written about a few times in this eNews I’m not born and bred country, not from a farm but I chose agriculture as a career. I chose it for two main reasons, I love my food and the career opportunities are boundless!
So, I always really enjoy it when I hear about BCG projects that allow people from a non-agricultural background to be exposed to agriculture.
Last week I was at Longerenong College when the Minister for Agriculture Jaala Pulford announced funding for AgTIDE, Training and Education, a project bringing the opportunities around AgTech into the classroom at Longy and also providing AgTech training for farmers and farm advisors.
There is also a small component whereby Melbourne Uni students not studying agricultural science will learn about farming and how technology is changing the way we farm. These students will come from the information technology, engineering, science and all sorts of other courses.
Because let’s face it, our industry needs younger people and not just the ones interested in doing the hands-on tractor and machinery driving. At BCG we’ve found that talking to young people about technology in agriculture really gets them excited and enables them to consider ag careers they would not otherwise know anything about.
Next week I will be in Birchip at the BCG community network charrette where once again we will be exposing people from outside our region, outside our industry to the farming and rural community of Birchip. We have over 25 people from a range of backgrounds in Birchip for three days talking about some of the challenges facing us. Not the agronomic or in-paddock challenges but the more complex challenges around rural population decline, struggling ecosystems, as well as the poor state of health of many people living in our community. Our visitors will come from the social sciences, health industry and agtech and will mix with a variety of locals and our traditional BCG collaborators from CSIRO, BoM and Regional Development.
So those three days will hopefully inspire a number of people who wouldn’t normally think much about agriculture and rural communities to really consider what it means to work and live in an agricultural community.
I hope the predictions for rain in the next few days come through for us.
