Boost for ag and hort science

Last week, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor announced funding of $1.6 million over five years, through MPI, to fund the initiative. He says the aim is to build resilience and meet future workforce demand as the sector grows.

"Our food and fibre sector is nothing if we don't have good, educated and enthusiastic people. We're backing the development of a nationwide advisory team to provide support to agricultural and horticultural science teachers, create resources and provide important links to local food and fibre sector partners."

O'Connor says there are 126 schools across the country teaching agricultural and horticultural science and the aim is to increase this number, especially in urban areas. He says the funding will provide for one full-time adviser and a support person plus up to 16 part-time regionally-based advisers.

The initiative came as a result of a proposal put to MPI by St Paul Collegiate, near Hamilton, which is a leader in teaching agribusiness, horticulture and agricultural science.

Kerry Allen, who runs the school's successful agribusiness programme and has been involved in other initiatives to raise the bar in teaching agriculture subjects in schools, played a leading role in putting this proposal together.

She says the money will go towards upskilling teachers and getting resources out to schools to help them understand new standards that are coming through, and provide general support to ag and hort teachers.

"Often ag and hort teachers are the sole charge people in their school and there is no other internal support for the subject, unlike maths which might have fifteen teachers," Allen told Rural News. "Ag and hort teachers have unique challenges because they need a lot of physical resources - such as glasshouses, farms, orchards and garden plots to maintain."

She sayswhile they cannot necessarily be helped physically, they can be given tricks and tips, better ideas professional development.