page_title: Agricultural education
section_title: Australia
hierarchical_section_title: Agricultural education / Outside the US / Australia
caption_attribution_description: English: Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School, Nemingha, NSW
context_page_description: Agricultural Education is the teaching of agriculture, natural resources, and land management. At higher levels, agricultural education is primarily undertaken to prepare students for employment in the agricultural sector. Classes taught in an agricultural education curriculum may include horticulture, land management, turf grass management, agricultural science, small animal care, machine and shop classes, health and nutrition, livestock management, and biology.
  Agricultural education is common at the primary, secondary, tertiary, and adult levels. Elementary agriculture is often taught in both public and private schools, and can cover such subjects as how plants and animals grow and how soil is farmed and conserved. Vocational agriculture trains people for jobs in such areas as production, marketing, and conservation. College agriculture involves training of people to teach or conduct research in order to advance the fields of agriculture and food science. General education informs the public about food and agriculture.
  Disciplines closely tied to agricultural education include agricultural communications, agricultural leadership, and extension education.
context_section_description: As of February 2015 Agriculture in Australia employs over 235,300 people in the agriculture, fishing and forestry and fishing industry. This industry alone equates to 12% share of the GDP earning close to  $155 billion a year. The farmers own a combined 135,997 farms covering approximately 61% of the land mass.
  Given these figures the agricultural programs in place in school and universities in very important to the future of the county. Several high schools operate across the country specifying in agriculture education. Predominantly these high schools are set in the rural areas with access to land. On the majority of cases the students often travel 1000 km to attend schools, taking up residence at the schools as boarders for the school term. The one of the biggest in Australia is Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in central New South Wales.
  
  The Agriculture in Education programme launched by the Australian government in 2015 helps teachers better understand the products and processes associated with food and fibre production and gives students an opportunity to understand the importance of agriculture in the Australian economy. Topics covered by the materials include: designing and making a financial plan for a market garden, free range chicken farming, food security, and sustainable production practices in food and fibre.
  The agricultural environment has changed enormously over the past 15 years, with greater emphasis on product quality issues, vertical integration from production to consumer, diversity in demand options, and environmental namely drought, welfare and ethical issues.
caption: Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School
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