LINCOLN, Neb. — Seen from the air, the spring landscape here is a vast expanse of brown farmland stretching below, ready for farmers to dig in and plant their corn and soybeans, the state’s two main crops. But what the flight over Nebraska doesn’t show is the vast network of aquifers and groundwater that feeds these millions of agricultural acres, a resource that has been threatened in recent years by drought And contamination by nitrogen fertilizers.
On the ground at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, professors and researchers are working to find solutions to these problems, while preparing students for the future of agriculture. The university’s new specialization, agricultural systems technology, combines hard science, data science, engineering and management.
It is designed to prepare students for what is known as precision agriculture, which uses high-tech agricultural approaches that can improve both efficiency and environmental impact. In addition to traditional training, this agriculture degree requires an understanding of data science to enable the analysis of information from satellite imagery and a myriad of sensors that collect details about soil health, crop growth and water use.
Many farmers, especially older ones, have been reluctant to adopt the new practices because they lacked the training to interpret the data, according to a 2024 Government Accountability Office study. precision agriculture report. Experts say if they could take advantage of the new technology, it could allow farms to stay in business with less labor.
“There is a growing amount of data available, but it’s difficult to use all of that data,” said Derek Heeren, a professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Nebraska-Lincoln, whose research focuses on precision irrigation. “A lot of what we do is technical stuff: collecting data, recording data, analyzing data. »
Teaching this to undergraduates is a relatively new phenomenon. Of the dozens of colleges and universities that offer agriculture-related degrees, only six have a full specialization in agricultural systems technology: Nebraska-Lincoln, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, University of Missouri, South Dakota State and Utah State.
Along with data analysis, Nebraska-Lincoln agricultural systems technology students take courses in hydraulics, power systems, entrepreneurship and more. They learn to use drones for tasks such as spraying pesticides in small, targeted amounts and surveying land, and to drive autonomous tractors remotely.
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Outside of the classroom, they can complete internships in on-campus labs like the Agricultural Machine Automation and Robotics Lab, the Agricultural Intelligence Lab, and the Nebraska Tractor Testing Lab, the only one of its kind in the nation. Students also participate in clubs like the 1/4 Scale Tractor Team, where they build a small tractor and compete in a national end-of-year competition.
Cody Nieratka, a second-year agricultural systems technology student from Massachusetts, said he is excited about the use of autonomous equipment and artificial intelligence in agriculture, particularly drones and remote sensing technology. He wants to work on a farm, but says he has no idea what his future job might be.
“I don’t know where I’ll end up professionally because things are changing so quickly,” said Nieratka, who became interested in agriculture during high school after working at a campground that kept farm animals on the property. But he thinks these changes could help small farms survive.
“If we can get some of these small farms to access this technology and they can do the work of 10 people or as many people, that could save them,” he said.
Labor shortages have plagued agriculture for years due to the aging farm population. Nationally, the average age of farmers has increased from 53 in 2002 to 58 in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2022 Census of Agriculture. THE population of hired agricultural workers also ages; it went from 36 in 2006 to just under 40 in 2022.
Even though farming methods are less labor-intensive and more technology-driven, the number of students willing to take on new types of jobs remains relatively low. A joint Purdue and USDA university report projects predict that nearly 20,000 food production jobs will open each year between 2025 and 2030, but that colleges with agriculture-related programs will graduate only 58.7 percent of the graduates needed to fill those jobs.
“We can’t get enough students in any of these programs right now because there is such a high demand across the state,” said Joe Luck, interim chair of Nebraska-Lincoln’s biological systems engineering department.
He also had difficulty convincing undergraduates to enroll in the new major. In 2019, he said, there were about 100 students majoring in mechanized systems management, a precursor to the agricultural systems technology specialization; the new specialization now has 37 students.
Luck said enrollment dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic and has not recovered. He added that universities need to do more to raise awareness of how their agriculture degree programs can prepare students for future jobs in the agricultural sector.
Bruce Erickson, a professor of digital agriculture at Purdue University, said the low number of students majoring in the field could be linked to turmoil within the agricultural sector. “Agriculture has many problems right now,” he said, including high fertilizer prices, fluctuating crop prices and concerns about environmental impacts including water pollution and pesticide-related cancer rates.
“The typical farmer is viewed somewhat suspiciously,” he said, “with his huge sprayer applying pesticides.” He believes this perception has led some students to refuse to study agriculture.
Abbie Cox, a junior from Texas who in high school participated in the National FFA Organization, formerly Future Farmers of America, expressed concerns about the stability of an agricultural career.
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“With everything going from top to bottom and with commerce going so crazy, I think it scares some young people out of becoming farmers,” Cox said. She herself is aiming for a corporate career and hopes her internship at Caterpillar Inc. this summer will lead to a job offer.
Luck said the Nebraska Tractor Test Lab is particularly popular with potential employers. It is responsible for independently testing tractor performance claims made by manufacturers, including John Deere, Kubota and others, across the country. Every spring and fall, student interns help the laboratory team submit tractors for testing. “There is no other tractor testing laboratory in the country,” he said. “It’s a real competitive advantage for our students.”
USDA also broke ground on a new National Center for Resilient and Regenerative Precision Agriculture in Lincoln. Guillermo Balboa, professor of agronomy at Nebraska-Lincoln, believes this will help attract more students to study agriculture once the center is completed because there will be internship opportunities and possibly classes at the new USDA center.
As the field evolves, concerns about job prospects concern parents. Luck said parents visiting the university with their children have begun to wonder whether a diploma from the program would be AI-proof. “Who would have thought five years ago that you would answer questions like this during a recruiting visit? Chance said.
But many Nebraska-Lincoln agriculture professors are optimistic about AI.
“We’ve gone from how to prevent students from using AI to how to encourage them to use it appropriately and when is it appropriate and when is it not? said Rick Stowell, professor of biological systems engineering at UNL.
Luck said students will use AI in the next generation of agricultural jobs, but he doesn’t think it will replace them. “I’m not yet concerned about this threat to them because we’re still in touch with the real world,” he said. “Our programs are really focused on the question: ‘How can we interact with water, soil, plants, animals and humans?’ »
Contact publisher Lawrie Mifflin at 212-678-4078 or mifflin@hechingerreport.org.
This story on agricultural diplomas was produced by The Hechinger reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Register at Hechinger Newsletter.
The article As agriculture moves toward high technology, universities are developing new types of agriculture degrees, which appeared first in the Hechinger Report.
