On first glance, it may seem like Canada’s agriculture industry and the businesses operating within it are facing some impossible talent attraction challenges.

As Bayer CropScience HR Business Partner Tara Fowlie explained in the opening for her presentation at the 2013 TalentEgg National Campus Recruitment Excellence Awards and Conference, the world’s population (and its demand for food) continues to grow exponentially while, at the same time, the amount of farmland is decreasing.

Along with that decrease in farmland also comes a decrease in talent – fewer kids are growing up on farms these days and, without that early exposure to agriculture, they’re much less likely to choose a career in the industry.

So how can you convince highly educated and skilled young people to not only start their careers in the agriculture industry but with your company?

For Bayer CropScience, one of their most successful strategies has been to build a pipeline of talent through their Summer Associate program, which top students chose as a finalist in the Best Internship/Co-op Program awards category this year.


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