Baker’s comments come after the recent release of the Ministry’s Profile and Trends: New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Sector 2013 report which showed that, for Bachelors level or higher, only 1.1 percent of current students at New Zealand universities are studying an agriculture-based discipline; this despite more than 60 percent of the nation’s export wealth coming from food and fibre production.

The statistics reflect an ongoing concern that insufficient numbers of suitably trained graduates are entering the land-based industries to replace what is an aging population – all the more so considering the increasing sophistication of the primary sector.

The Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, recently announced the need for approximately 50,000 more workers in the primary industry if the country has any hope of doubling its primary exports by 2025. It is thought that approximately half of these workers will need to be tertiary educated.

Part of the issue has been blamed on New Zealand’s increasingly urbanised society, resulting in a ‘disconnect’ or unfamiliarity with agriculture or the land-based industries in general.

“It is vital if we are to achieve the kind of growth in student numbers the industry needs that we find ways to engage urban students,” says Jeremy Baker. “One of the key messages we need to get across is that there is much more to the primary sector than just farming. We need to show that it is a vast sector, incorporating a range of science, business and IT disciplines across both rural and urban environments. It’s a multibillion dollar, multifaceted industry which is of tremendous importance to New Zealand, and comes with some amazing opportunities for students prepared to open themselves up to the possibilities,” Baker says.

“Whether one has grown up on a farm or not is irrelevant. There are many careers in the primary sector which involve working in towns and cities,” he said.

Baker also sees a perception around primary sector training as being for the less academically gifted as being particularly unhelpful. “The industry needs a range of people with a range of skills, but perceptions need to change about the kind of students suitable for the sector. This is a complex industry that needs, and will welcome and reward, the very best and brightest.

“We also need to break with a tradition that seems to hold that the ‘doctor, lawyer, architect’ careers are the optimal pathways for the more promising students. It’s a bit of a cliché, and it’s not helpful if we are to make the most of the country’s intellectual assets relative to its key commercial interests. The fact is we need smart people taking up studies as animal geneticists, plant and soil scientists, supply chain managers, agribusiness specialists, environmental planners, and biosecurity experts,” Baker says.

As well as increasingly positive signs from Government to front-foot the issue, other encouraging signs include a commitment to land-based teaching (such as agribusiness) in some secondary schools around the country, such as the recent example by St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton.