Skills shortage in ag science ranks

23-01-2012 | Annette Scott

New Zealand has identified a shortage of highly skilled people to fill agricultural science jobs, but opening up to migrant workers may not be the big fix.

Five agricultural science occupations have been included on the Labour Department's long-term skills shortage list to enable easier entry for migrants to fill the gaps.

But Massey University director of agriculture Professor Jacqueline Rowarth is not convinced that adding occupations including agricultural scientist (farm systems scientist), biotechnologist (genetics scientist) and environmental research scientist (water quality analyst) will fix the problem.

Rowarth warned that some positions could not be filled by migrants as they required hands-on knowledge of NZ's agriculture and it would be a much smarter move for government to look after its own people.

"We know there are not enough of our own people to fill highly skilled jobs in the agriculture industry and this sends signals to our domestic people of the potential in both the agriculture and education sectors that need to be addressed. This is fantastic opportunity," Rowarth said.

"I say absolutely hooray. But not for migrants for these occupations, it would be fairly challenging for overseas people to tell farmers here what to do."

NZ has young soils, some of the best pasture management systems in the world and educated famers. "NZ is very different to the rest of the world and we need to get our great kids realising the importance of agriculture and that is the real challenge," Rowarth said.

Changes made to NZ's long term skills shortage list (LTSSL) mean NZ visa opportunities for workers in these recently identified "in demand" occupations.

The Department of Labour maintains the essential skills in demand lists which aim to ensure that NZ's industries can be augmented by any skills or professionals of which they may be lacking.

The LTSSL identifies occupations where there is a sustained and ongoing shortage of highly skilled workers globally and throughout NZ.

People who gain employment in one of these areas may be granted a work visa under the LTSSL Work to Residence instructions. The Work to Residence instructions enable an applicant to apply for residence after two years provided they have remained working in a LTSSL occupation with a base salary of at least NZ$45,000, and meet standard instruction requirements.

Rowarth said the agricultural skills shortage was a spin-off from decades of the industry being undervalued. Since the late 1980s, agriculture had been seen as a "sunset industry".

Another reason for the shortage was a lack of students staying at university to complete PhDs, which were required for most agricultural scientist positions, as they could obtain well-paying jobs with a bachelor's degree.

"The students are saying why would I want to do a PhD and I wonder too. We have got senior scientists on $100,000/year with no accessories and we have 28-year-olds in the fertiliser industry on the same with a car, a computer and everything else that goes with it. The equation just doesn't add up."

Rowarth suggested aggressive promotion of agricultural careers through the education system and underwriting the training for the identified occupations. While sector industries such as DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ offered scholarships of $3500, they were helpful but not enough to make the difference.

"A real incentive would be $15,000 to live and $5000 fees. That would ... make the difference and get more people valuing these agricultural occupations. I believe that can be done. No fees in agriculture could be the best start (towards filling skill gaps)."

Latest statistics show that agriculture graduates average just 100 annually. Performing and creative arts sit on 2500, business 5500 and social 6500, with more students graduating in sports than agriculture.

At $6000 per year over three years it would cost a mere $2 million per year to zero fee support agriculture students. "That's peanuts and it would give the right signals to these students to encourage recruitment from ‘our' people. The government needs to honour now these areas of scarcity they have highlighted for the great young people we have in our own country who can do our own jobs."

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