Agriculture Careers, Jobs and Education Guides

Main career paths in agriculture

Agriculture jobs fall into a handful of broad paths, and many people move between them over a career. Knowing the groups helps when job titles differ from one country or company to the next.

Our guide to 20 careers in agriculture describes what each role involves day to day. If you’re starting out, a season on a working farm is useful whichever path you choose later: agronomists, engineers and lenders who understand how a farm actually runs are easier to trust, and employers know it.

What an agriculturist earns

“Agriculturist” is a loose title, so salary depends far more on the specific role, country and level of responsibility than on the label. A few patterns hold in most places. Roles that combine a degree with a technical specialty, such as agricultural engineering, agronomy or veterinary work, usually pay more than general farm work. Management roles on large operations and jobs on the finance and trading side of agribusiness also tend to sit near the top. Seasonal harvest work pays by the hour or the piece and is usually at the lower end. Housing, transport and meals provided with rural jobs can make a real difference to what you take home, so compare the whole package, not only the headline wage.

For reliable numbers, use the official labor statistics in the country you want to work in. In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes median pay and job outlook for agricultural and food scientists, agricultural engineers and farm managers, among others. Our A to Z guide to agriculture career salaries and the piece on agricultural engineering salaries in Canada give examples by role.

Working in agriculture abroad

Several countries run dedicated visa routes for farm work, because local labor can’t cover the harvest. They change often, so always check the official government page before applying:

• The UK runs a Seasonal Worker visa for horticulture and poultry work, sponsored by approved operators. Our article on UK seasonal worker visa sponsors explains how the sponsor system works.
• The US uses the H-2A program for temporary agricultural workers, with the employer applying first.
• Canada has the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and an agricultural stream within its Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
• Australia recruits through the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, and working holiday makers can count specified farm work toward a second-year visa. Our overview of agriculture jobs in Australia covers where the shortages are.

Skilled roles such as agronomist or agricultural engineer usually go through a country’s general skilled migration system, where a recognized degree and work experience matter most.

Degrees, courses and certifications

Most professional roles ask for a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science, agronomy, animal science, agricultural engineering or agricultural economics. A diploma or certificate from an agricultural college is a common route into farm management and technician jobs. Online courses are useful for adding a specific skill, such as farm business management or precision agriculture, and our list of online agriculture courses in Australia gives examples.

Professional certifications help in advisory work. In North America, the Certified Crop Adviser credential from the American Society of Agronomy is widely recognized by employers and farmers.

Skills employers ask for now

Job ads in agriculture increasingly ask for data skills alongside field experience. That means being comfortable with farm management software, yield and soil maps, GPS-guided machinery and satellite crop data. Someone who can walk a field and also read an NDVI map, or explain a variable-rate prescription to a grower, is useful to almost any farm business or adviser. Basic spreadsheet work and clear writing come up in job ads more often than people expect, too.

Universities have started teaching this directly. Students and researchers at 74 universities, colleges and schools in 20 countries use our satellite crop monitoring platform, which shows 16 satellite views of a field, including NDVI, NDRE and radar soil moisture, at 10-meter resolution. Learning to interpret views like these, and to check them against what you see in the field, is a practical skill to build before your first job interview.