Jobs in agriculture

At first glance, you might think working in the agriculture industry would look like farming or working in the fields, but the jobs in agriculture are endless.

For this week’s home grown, we spoke to the director of agriculture programs at the University of Arizona to find out what job opportunities there are in the Ag industry.

“Sometimes young people when they think of agriculture they think of everybody who’s working in the field, the tractor drivers, the irrigators, the field workers and really agriculture is so much more than that,” Tanya Hodges, Regional Academic Programs Coordinator for the U of A Yuma said.

In Yuma you can choose between four degrees in Ag through the University of Arizona.

“Ag technology management, which is more of a leadership/business emphasis and we have sustainable plant systems if you want to be a crop or pest certified advisor as well, we have agricommerce, which is mostly focused on business and how to help the industry in the business areas and then we have animal science and plant science…” the Director of Agriculture Programs, B aleshka Brenes said.

In fact, there are so many jobs out there in Ag that Brenes says you have a 100 percent chance of being placed in a job post graduation.

You can study microbiology, food safety, engineering, agronomy. You could become a plant and crop advisor or work in chemical and fertilizer sales. You could even write policy for water and land law.

“A lot of the times people will say they want to go to law school and they think only about criminal law but they don’t think of all the types of law and business that’s tied to agriculture,” Hodges said.

In Yuma you can also emphasize in health and wellness with Ag, studying nutritional science and preventive medicine, looking at the plant to animal to human interaction.

Staying here in yuma to get a degree in Ag could be a good option for you.

They keep expanding the education programs here in Yuma. The U of A just opened a brand new facility with classrooms, a new student lounge for the 200 upper division and 16 grad students studying agriculture.

For more information visit https://yuma.arizona.edu/