Scholarships, bursaries available for careers in agriculture

Jun 25, 2024

By Andrea McCoy-Naperstkow, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Two topics often make headlines when it comes to agriculture – the relatively high average age (56) of Canada’s farmers and the ongoing labour shortage that makes it hard to attract enough workers to fill the many positions available throughout the food system.

Current research suggests the worker shortage in agriculture could reach 123,000 by 2030, because of older workers retiring and the expected continued growth of the sector.

I’m both a farmer – my husband and I raise cattle and grow crops in the Eastern Ontario county of Lanark – and a professor at Algonquin College’s Perth Campus, where I teach agricultural business. That means I understand firsthand how important it is for our industry to encourage the next generation to choose a career in agriculture, whatever that might look like.

Traditionally, that has often meant on-farm jobs working with livestock or growing crops, but today, pursuing a career in agriculture offers a wide range of fascinating and fulfilling opportunities.

Beyond the farm, which I personally know can be a rewarding and fulfilling way of life, the career possibilities range from research, equipment maintenance, quality control, food safety, and construction to transportation, processing, product development, marketing, sales, business and beyond.

That’s before we include emerging fields like robotics, automation, artificial intelligence or gene editing, to name just a few, all of which offer exciting new potential for farming and food production.

As a professor, I also know how hard today’s students have to work at their education. It’s an expensive undertaking and many of the students I teach balance their course load with employment to put themselves through school.

That’s why scholarships and bursaries are important – and why I’m proud of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), where I serve as a board member, for actively supporting young people who wish to work in our sector.

One way the OFA does this is through our province-wide bursary program, which offers $2,000 each to three students in undergraduate programs studying agriculture, as well as to someone completing an apprenticeship and to an individual enrolled in a post-graduate or leadership development program.

Applicants are judged based on demonstrated leadership skills, involvement in the community, and their accomplishments in both school and the agriculture industry. The deadline to apply for this year’s OFA bursaries is August 31, with full details available at ofa.on.ca.

There are also substantial scholarships and bursaries for higher education offered by many of the OFA’s county and regional federations, as well as other agricultural organizations like Grain Farmers of Ontario, the Ottawa Valley Seed Growers, 4-H, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers and many others.

Depending on the award, funds can be used to help pay for things like tuition, textbooks, housing and other educational expenses. Deadlines and criteria vary, but a full list of available opportunities can be found on the OFA’s website.

By investing in these types of opportunities, we are supporting future generations and offering a hand up to the young people who are looking to follow in the footsteps of those of us who have made our livelihoods in the agriculture industry – whether they come from a farming background or not.

Many of the big issues facing the world today, from climate change and emissions to food security and soil health, are complex but they have a connection to agriculture in that we are both impacted by them and can offer solutions for improvement.

There are no easy answers, so we need talented, smart, and enthusiastic people with fresh ideas and new perspectives to join our industry and help make a positive difference for our world.

If you know a young person who is returning to school in the fall, just starting into post-secondary education for the first time or considering their career options as they near the end of their high school career, encourage them to take a look at the opportunities agriculture can offer – and the support that’s available to help them achieve their goals in this industry.

Source : OFA

Video: Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Understanding how a plant responds to stress is one thing.

Using that knowledge to make better management decisions is another.

Systemic acquired resistance, or SAR, is the plant's more direct defense response. When stress or infection occurs, the plant begins signaling throughout its system and preparing defensive compounds.

But if we know that response exists, can we help prepare the plant before the stress arrives?

The answer starts with understanding what triggers the response and what the plant needs to carry it out.

The Trigger and the Fuel

Salicylic acid plays an important role in triggering the SAR pathway.

Think of it as turning the truck on.

The engine may be running, but it still needs fuel to do the work.

In this case, manganese plays an important role in supporting the enzyme systems involved in the plant's defensive response.

This makes manganese status an important part of the conversation. Whether a producer is using tissue testing, sap analysis, or simply scouting for visible deficiency symptoms, the goal is to make sure the plant has adequate manganese available.

Manganese is required in relatively small amounts, but that does not make its role small.

If the plant receives a signal to defend itself but lacks the nutrition needed to support that response, it may struggle to carry out the process efficiently.

The trigger matters.

The fuel matters too.

Prepare Before the Stress Arrives

The best time to think about stress management is before the plant is overwhelmed.

Once a crop is already struggling, management can quickly turn into a game of catch-up.

This is similar to nitrogen management. Once a plant becomes severely deficient, correcting the problem does not necessarily erase the time and yield potential already lost.

Plant defense can work the same way.

Low-rate, targeted approaches designed to support the SAR pathway may fit best ahead of an expected stress event rather than after significant damage has already occurred.

That requires producers to think about predictable stress.

We may not know exactly what the weather will do tomorrow, but we generally know summer heat is coming. We know certain field conditions increase disease pressure. We know a herbicide application can temporarily stress a crop as the plant processes the chemistry.

Even a properly timed and labeled herbicide application can create a temporary response in the plant.

That does not mean the herbicide is bad.

Weeds can create significantly more yield loss than the temporary stress caused by controlling them.

The question is not whether we should eliminate every stressor.

The question is whether we can better prepare the plant to manage necessary and predictable stress.

Not All Stress Is Bad

Stress is a normal part of plant growth.

A perfectly stress-free environment does not exist in the field.

In fact, some stress is necessary for normal plant development. A plant responds to wind, temperature, moisture, sunlight, and countless other environmental signals throughout the season.

The environment is stress.

The plant's job is to manage it.

Problems begin when the stress load becomes greater than the plant's ability to respond.

Extreme heat, drought, high salt concentrations, disease pressure, and even certain management practices can add to that load.

This is where understanding SAR becomes useful.

Instead of waiting until the plant is visibly struggling, producers can begin identifying periods when stress is likely and make management decisions around those windows.

ISR Starts With the Soil

While SAR is a more direct defense response, induced systemic resistance, or ISR, brings the conversation back to soil health.

The longevity of a farm is closely connected to the health of its soil.

Carbon plays a major role because it supports biological life within the soil. Bacteria, fungi, and other organisms interact with plant roots and influence how the plant grows, accesses nutrients, and prepares for stress.

This is why soil health cannot be reduced to one product or one application.

It is a system.

Keeping living plants in the field longer can support biological activity. Cover crops may fit some operations. Better water management can improve soil conditions.