New research offers hope to rural industries workforce

Sydney man Tom Shaw had strong family links to the land but didn't want to move from his city life for work.

"There was always an attraction there for me to be involved in agriculture, everyone needs to eat and that was something I was really keen to be a part of," Mr Shaw said.

"It had great employability, there was long term job security and it was also working with nature, and working with the environment was something that was really attractive to me," he said.

At 25 he runs an indoor vertical farm from his inner Sydney office, and is an example of someone who has been able to stay in the city and work in agriculture

"A career in agriculture is so much more than just being in a paddock somewhere, there's so much opportunity to build a better food system for everyone," Mr Shaw said. 

In what's been described as an Australian first, five thousand people have been interviewed around attitudes to a career in agriculture, fisheries or forestry, with a third of the group already working in the industry.

Of those interviewed almost half said the need to live in a rural area for most jobs made a career in rural industries less attractive. 

Lead researcher Kieren Moffat said the research makes a series of recommendations including closing the gap to align the perceptions with the reality.

"There's a big gap between the experience of workers which is generally really positive...and the much less positive perceptions of the community," Dr Moffat said.

"We recommend efforts to bridge this gap through revealing the experiences and views of current industry workers." 

"The barriers to that were the perceptions that working in rural industries means you have to go into regional and remote locations because that is the only way to work," he told AAP.

Researchers also found 84 per cent of respondents believed working in rural industries meant physically demanding work.

But Dr Moffat said that didn't align with the reality, with only 63 per cent of rural workers agreeing their work was physical.

"So that really undermines the attractiveness of rural industries, but of course there is a enormous diversity of roles," he said. 

The study found 54% of workers surveyed intend to stay in rural industries for more than ten years and 70% of workers think there are meaningful careers in rural industries.

62% agreed there is a positive and supportive work culture.

The research was undertaken by data science company Voconiq as part of AgriFutures Australia's Community Perceptions and Worker Experiences Research Program.

AgriFutures Australia boss John Harvey said the research is a game changer for the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors.

"We now have data on what workers want from a career in rural industries, why people have left the workforce, what will attract more workers from other sectors," Mr Harvey said.

"What is clear from the results is that rural industry workers are much more positive about a career in the sector than those from the community," he said.

"Many community perceptions about working in rural industries are still based on stereotypes, such as having to live regionally or work in a paddock with livestock or crop."