A major new skills strategy aimed at equipping farmers and growers with the right skills for the 21st century has been unveiled.
DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn joined key industry representatives for the launch of the AgriSkills Strategy, which seeks to ensure agriculture and horticulture production deliver a skilled workforce, in London on Wednesday.
The strategy is said to be the first to be developed by industry for industry. It portrays a profession of highly skilled and technically knowledgeable farmers and growers in a priority industry that seeks to be fully valued and seen as an attractive career of choice.
AgriSkills Forum chairman and National Farmers’ Union deputy president Meurig Raymond said: “The need to produce enough food to feed an increasing population while impacting less on the environment, coupled with the advances in technology, means we must build on our highly skilled base to take the industry forward into the 21st century.
“While we recognise that farmers and farm workers already have a high level of skills we understand that, to attract young people and new entrants to the industry, it is essential that these skills are recognised and improved. Put simply - a thriving industry needs to demonstrate that it is highly competent in all that it does. “
Richard Longthorp, chairman of the AgriSkills Strategy working group, added: "This strategy has been developed thanks to an unprecedented degree of collaboration between all the major agricultural organisations to address the issue of skills in our industry and how they are recognised… this is no time to be patting each other on the back.
“The real work and the real outcome lie ahead of us. It will be down to the whole of industry to ensure the strategy's vision is realised. I challenge anyone to read the strategy's vision and not feel an immense sense of pride in this great industry of ours. Anybody and everybody who shares that vision has a responsibility to ensure it is achieved."
Following an initial consultation period, the AgriSkills Strategy is now available. The AgriSkills Forum is insistent the strategy will never be allowed to “gather dust” and is supported by an action plan that it will regularly monitor, review and revise to drive through its implementation.
The key organisations responsible for developing the strategy were Lantra, the Sector Skills Council for the environmental and land-based industries, the NFU Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, Landex and National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs.
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