In the past few weeks, I’ve heard of at least 10 agronomists or crop walking jobs that need to be filled and those I’m talking to are wondering who is going to fill them, with the lack of crops-based graduates coming out of the universities.

Now the jobs, of course, are much more than crop walking, but this is the skill that graduates are short of.

Perhaps the lack of focus on the tillage sector by Government and other organisations over a number of years has filtered through to our younger people. If you don’t see it, you can’t be it and while tillage is seeing a resurgence in areas now and it is badly needed to improve our climate credentials and sustainable food production, there seems to be a break in the chain of graduates coming into the industry.

Hopefully, there will be a turnaround. The new crop production course in UCD is a start, but students need to see positive talk and investment from a higher level.