If you see yourself making a career in the field of agriculture, here is a detailed list of career opportunities in this field, including qualification requirement and average salary range.
What comes to your mind when we say careers in ‘agriculture’? Farms and ranches, and growing crops and stuff, greenery everywhere, isn’t it? Well, it doesn’t end here. Factually speaking, only 10% of people are involved in conventional farming, and there are around 22 million people who are connected to agriculture-related business and firms. So imagine the range of career opportunities this field gives us!
If you’re pursuing a degree in agriculture, you have many job options to choose from. But if your school/college doesn’t offer a degree in this field, you can go for seeking a degree in business, economy, communication, journalism, and get to work in your field of interest―agriculture!
Careers in Agriculture can be divided into several categories. These include―Agricultural engineering, animal science, food science, agronomy, agribusiness, and many more. Read on to get the detailed information.
Agricultural Engineering
Job Title: Irrigation Engineer
Qualification Requirement: Advanced degree in agriculture, Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.
Job Description: Works with the planning and development of irrigation projects related to water supply and distribution to agricultural fields; designing drainage and flood control systems.
Average Annual Salary: $67,000
Job Title: Food Engineer
Qualification Requirement: Minimum of Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture, life sciences, food science.
Job Description: Creating techniques to preserve, package, and improve food products.
Average Annual Salary: $65,000
Job Title: Sanitation/Waste Handling Engineer
Qualification Requirement: Degree in sanitation engineering, environmental engineering, or related field.
Job Description: Devise methods to prevent agricultural-based environmental hazards, look after the design of water systems, enhancing water and soil quality, plan sanitation.
Average Annual Salary: $76,900
Agribusiness/Agricultural Economics
Bachelors or Master’s Degree in business, finance, economics, or training courses and apprenticeships for insurance-related jobs.
Job Title: Grain/Commodity Broker
Qualification Requirement: Degree in agriculture can be considered, but mainly requires a bachelor’s degree in business, finance, management.
Job Description: Trade on behalf of their clients, buying and selling farm products like wheat, eggs, corn, etc., negotiate prices, intercede from producers to distributors.
Average Annual Salary: $60,400
Job Title: Farm and Land Appraiser
Qualification Requirement: Degree in agriculture with State license and certifications.
Job Description: Inspect real property, analyze market data and research market sales, communicate with investors, creditors, real estate agents.
Average Annual Salary: $55,000
Job Title: Agricultural Policy Analyst
Qualification Requirement: Degree in industrial engineering, agriculture economics, or related field.
Job Description: Prepare documentation―meeting reports, activity reports, agendas, etc., maintain good contacts with international delegates.
Average Annual Salary: $35,000 to $90,000
Job Title: Agricultural Loan Officer
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, business, finance or related field with experience in AG/Commercial Lending.
Job Description: Maintain loan data, conduct financial research to formulate loan plans and the risk involved, maintain relationship with agricultural product market clients.
Average Annual Salary: $49,000
Job Title: Insurance Agent
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, accounting with State License.
Job Description: Assist clients in choosing best insurance policy, plan insurance programs, and develop marketing strategies.
Average Annual Salary: $62,000
Agronomy and Seed
Requires advanced Degree in agriculture, biology, genetics.
Job Title: Soil Scientist/Soil Surveyor
Qualification Requirement: Degree in soil science/earth science, agriculture, environmental studies.
Job Description: Includes field work―collecting and analyzing soil samples, surveying land, provide data to improve soil quality are some of the key tasks.
Average Annual Salary: $65,000 ($48,000 to $72,000 based on experience)
Job Title: Crop Specialist/Agronomist
Qualification Requirement: Degree in soil science, agriculture.
Job Description: Improve food crops, create yield maps including characteristics of soil, drainage and irrigation patterns, document records regarding agricultural products, keep a check on activities like pest control, enhancing soil quality, and likewise.
Average Annual Salary: $47,000
Job Title: Soil Conservationist
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in agriculture science, soil science, environmental studies, forestry.
Job Description: Create programs to prevent soil erosion, perform land surveys, present reports to clients, develop soil conservation plans, etc.
Average Annual Salary: $63,000
Job Title: Plant Geneticist/Breeder
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, horticulture, biotechnology, botany, genetics, plant science, biology.
Job Description: Make improvements in plant breeding based on scientific research using expertise tools and techniques, increase crop yield, enhance existing crop quality etc.
Average Annual Salary: $59,000
Job Title: Fertilizer Sales Representative
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in agribusiness, agricultural economics, marketing, plant science. Knowledge of fertilizers is a must.
Job Description: Develop sales strategies and implement techniques to increase sales, establish distributing networks.
Average Annual Salary: $64,000
Agricultural Education
Job Title: Education Specialist/Agricultural Information Specialist
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, communication. (Teacher education program is a must for education specialist)
Job Description: Education specialists teach subjects like animal and plant science, horticulture, agricultural chemicals and technology.
Average Annual Salary: $45,000 to $72,000
Job Title: Agriculture Information Specialist
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, communication.
Job Description: Job of a reporter; research and write about agricultural development, food safety, plant and animal science topics, etc.
Average Annual Salary: $45,000 to $72,000
Animal Science
Animal Science deals with the science side of agriculture. It deals with upgrading animal housing facilities, handling waste matter, researching based on the improvement in production of meat, fish, and other dairy products.
Job Title: Livestock Production Manager
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Agriculture Science, food science, livestock evaluation.
Job Description: Manage livestock production by directing employees for things like feeding animals, milking cows, etc. They make budgets and plans and conduct negotiations with livestock buyers.
Average Annual Salary: $59,000
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in animal science, zoology.
Job Description: Managing efficient livestock feeding programs, focusing on issues like their health and weight gain.
Average Annual Salary: $46,000
Job Title: Animal Scientist
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in animal science, Master’s degree in zoology, coursework related to veterinary science, genetics, biology.
Job Description: Conduct research and experiments based on livestock, look after their grooming, inspecting for diseases, investigate better breeding and feeding techniques, link between farmers and livestock industry.
Average Annual Salary: $47,000
Job Title: Animal Geneticist
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in genetics, animal science, dairy science, conservation biology, or coursework including genetics, reproduction, laboratory science, livestock production, biology, chemistry.
Job Description: Covers animal breeding, genetic testing and other hereditary procedures for food producers. Enhance livestock production.
Average Annual Salary: $75,000 to $116,000
Job Title: Farm Manager, Barn Manager
Qualification Requirement: HND (Higher National Degree) in agriculture, or degree in farm business management, land management, crop and livestock production, horticulture, or related field.
Job Description: Manage planting, harvesting of crops, supervise farm operations, plan finances for the progress of farm, looks after all the supplies―seeds, fertilizers, etc.
Average Annual Salary: $41,000
Food Science
Job Title: Food/Flavor Chemist
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in food science, food engineering, nutrition, food chemistry.
Job Description: Advancement in food products like increasing its nutritional value, processing and packaging, enhancing its taste and flavor.
Average Annual Salary: $77,000
Job Title: Food Microbiologist
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in microbiology, nutrition, food science, food engineering, chemical engineering, organic chemistry.
Job Description: They work on diagnosing and preventing diseases like food poisoning owing to food-borne pathogens, assessing food samples, develop anti-microbial and other essential vitamins and enzymes.
Average Annual Salary: $66,000
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in food science, food engineering, microbiology, nutrition, chemistry.
Job Description: Testing food samples, evaluating food products, their taste, flavor and nutrition, researching new food products, etc.
Average Annual Salary: $50,000 to $60,000
Job Title: Food Manufacturing Specialist
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in food science, food engineering, or related field or a Master’s degree in Microbiology.
Job Description: Manage food processing procedures, supervise quality control, develop manufacturing of food products.
Average Annual Salary: $42,000
Job Title: Quality Assurance Specialist/Inspector/Manager
Qualification Requirement: Degree in food science, business, management, or relevant field.
Job Description: To establish quality standards, and keep a check on the industry requirement.
Average Annual Salary: $59,000
Agricultural Communication
Job Title: Public Relations Representative
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Marketing.
Job Description: Maintain relationship with media, government, consumers, and other public groups.
Average Annual Salary: $38,000
Job Title: Market News Reporter
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Marketing, Communication.
Job Description: Disperses market reports to producers, agribusinesses, news media, and public.
Average Annual Salary: $35,000 to $55,000
Job Title: Advertising Specialists
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Marketing.
Job Description: Designing programs for betterment of company products. Promote products, work with art directors and sales agents.
Average Annual Salary: $57,000 to $70,000
Job Title: Regional Sales Manager
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in either of these: accounting, business, or economics, finance, marketing with a minimum of 2 years experience.
Job Description: Set goals, maintain and improve sales, developing strategies for sales, monitoring individual performance as well as performance of the team as a whole.
Average Annual Salary: $121,000
Job Title: Marketing Communications Manager
Qualification Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communication, Advertising with minimum 3 years of experience in relevant field.
Job Description: Creates, enforces, and supervises communication programs regarding promotion of products, fact sheets, company logo, etc. Holds seminars and speeches regarding marketing strategies focusing on customer satisfaction.
Average Annual Salary: $90,000