Study: Growing Demand For College Ag Grads

According to a report by Purdue University and the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, employment opportunities for college graduates in agriculture and related academic fields are expected to be better over the next five years than from 2005-10, AgriMarketing reports.

The “Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in Food, Renewable Energy and the Environment” report estimates 54,400 jobs in agriculture-related sectors will be added in the U.S. annually between 2010 and 2015. In that same period, 53,500 students are expected to graduate each year from U.S. colleges of agriculture and in the life sciences, veterinary medicine, forestry and natural resources, and allied non-agricultural fields.

Other fields with above-average job growth through 2015 include food science, plant sciences, biological engineering, public practice veterinary medicine, specialty crop production, forest restoration, precision agriculture, crop management consulting, climate change analysis, distance education and natural resources conservation.