The Oxford Farming Conference

Over the last few weeks the press has been dominated by agricultural labour challenges with “Christmas” put on hold by Tesco due to a shortage of staff to rear and prepare turkeys, Australia announcing an agricultural labour crisis due to visa restrictions, farmers reporting rotting fruit due to not enough workers to pick it and a pig backlog of nearly 85,000 due to a lack of staff in the abattoirs.

But this isn’t a new challenge. Over the last decade, we have seen reports of staff shortages in nearly every sector of agriculture and horticulture. This, combined with a lack of housing and rising costs, means employing someone is becoming more and more difficult.

In this OFC Bitesize, we hear how the industry and farmers are innovating to attract and retain “Farming’s Future Workforce”. The panel explore how novel technologies, such as robots, can increase productivity, what human skills are required to approach future demands, and share their own positive solutions.

Hosted in partnership with the Institute of Agricultural Management