Agricultural economics has expanded to include renewable resources, rural land planning, and government subsidy programs. Agricultural economists work for government agencies, land planning companies, and academia to sustain and maximize agricultural resources. They analyze economic trends and calculate outcomes to benefit farmers and communities.
The field of agricultural economics is broad in most places. What was once a discipline dedicated to the economics of land management and the maximization of livestock has expanded to include research into renewable resources; rural lands and community planning; government agricultural subsidy and loan programs; environmental agribusiness, among other things. An agricultural economist can work for government agencies at the national or local level, helping to design the math side of successful agricultural policies. Others may work with land planning or agricultural futures companies, managing communities or analyzing agriculture-related investment opportunities. Still others work in academia, teaching the agricultural economists of tomorrow.
Agriculture is an important part of every country’s national agenda. Countries with robust agricultural systems have the capacity to be self-sustaining, and those that have learned to maximize their natural resources are in many ways more stable on both the domestic and international fronts. Supporting a healthy agricultural economy usually doesn’t just happen by itself. Practices that are good for a farming community in one generation may not be sustainable over time, just as agriculture and food management activities designed to benefit a nation as a whole may be detrimental to the rural communities they touch. . The agricultural economist’s job is to analyze a given agricultural situation and then devise a plan to sustain and maximize it over time to mutual benefit.
The work of every agricultural economist focuses on how the calculations, projections, and statistical analyzes of the economy can be applied to agriculture and land development. Economics as a discipline is centered on the management and allocation of resources. In an agricultural environment, the resources in question are land, farm equipment and livestock, and natural resources such as coal, fresh water and natural gas. The agricultural economist is involved in maximizing these resources in a way that allows for the continued success and propagation of agricultural life.
Economics and agriculture intersect in many different ways, and agricultural jobs that involve economics are just as wide-ranging. Agricultural economists work many different types of jobs, for many different employers. Some do most of their work at a desk, reading reports, drawing conclusions about economic trends, and performing agricultural calculations and analysis. Others may work in the field, interviewing farmers, surveying land, and examining rural and farming community layouts and outcomes. Some write reviews to teach and others to advocate; some work with legislatures and others lobby governments on behalf of farmers.
Despite the differences in their work, at the end of the day, a whole range of professionals can be called an “agricultural economist”. Given the breadth of agricultural and economic issues shared in any country or community, agricultural economists necessarily fulfill a range of agricultural jobs and functions. Still, from training to passion and everything in between, professionals in the field have a lot of important things in common.
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