“One of the things that we know from the USDA is that we will have about 57,000 job openings in agriculture and related fields over the course of the next several years,” Ricketts said.
Ag Technology Summit at HHD talks about bold new future for Nebraska agriculture | Grand Island Local News
But to fill those 57,000 jobs, he said, there will only be about 35,000 graduates.
“We need more young people to come into agriculture,” Ricketts said.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be production agriculture. It could be working on these technologies and improving what we are doing.”
In 2017, Ricketts signed the Bioscience Innovation Act into law to incentivize investment by innovative start-ups here in Nebraska. Administered through the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED), he said, the Bioscience Innovation Act provides 1:1 matching grants to early-stage, high-growth biotech companies. State agencies are working to encourage ag tech innovation.
As an example, Ricketts said the DED, in partnership with Invest Nebraska, launched the Combine incubator program at Innovation Campus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in October 2019. The combine supports high-growth entrepreneurs in food and agriculture.
“We are trying to encourage young entrepreneurs to develop technologies that are going to help our farmers and ranchers to be more productive and effective,” he said. “It will allow us to feed a growing world and be technological leaders.”
Gloss