The panel consisted of: Pieter Smit, director of SANSOR and Marketing Lead of Bayer; Ikageng Mululeke, agricultural economist at Grain SA; Siyanda Sishuba, journalist at Farmer’s Weekly magazine; Jacqueline Mathews, Group Manager: Assurance Services NWK; and Pascal Chuene, Agric Business Development Manager at Engen.
The focus of the discussion was to highlight job opportunities and career paths and options within the agricultural value chain. The panellists expounded on their own personal experiences and career journeys in agriculture.
If you have ever wondered about the career opportunities in agriculture, this is the show to watch.
Jacqueline spoke about how marrying a farmer allowed her to apply her accounting and auditing skills in the agri-value chain, by joining NWK.
Siyanda’s story involves her looking for a way to marry environmental issues with food production.
While Ikageng’s journey began with a seed being planted by her grandmother.
Pascal shared his story, which had some fascinating twists and turns, but has him currently working in the agricultural space from a fuel provider’s perspective.
During the question-and-answer session the panel expressed their admiration for the quality of questions from the young participants representing their various institutions.
The bottom line of this session is that the career opportunities in agriculture is massive and varied, from agronomy, to drone technology, big data, data analytics, forensic accounting, risk management, journalism marketing; and a lot more – all along the food value chain, from the seed to the plate.