Agricultural communication

Four people speaking with a farmer in Nigeria
Four people speaking with a farmer in Nigeria

Agricultural communication, or agricultural communications, is a field that focuses on communication about agriculture-related information among agricultural stakeholders and between agricultural and non-agricultural stakeholders and is part of a larger field[1] known as Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications typically housed in academic departments in Colleges of Agriculture with other sub-disciplines such as Agricultural Education and Agricultural Leadership.[2] Agriculture is broadly defined in this discipline to include not only farming, but also food, fiber (e.g., cotton), animals, rural issues, and natural resources.[3] Agricultural communication is done formally and informally by agricultural extension, agricultural education teachers, and private communicators and is considered by some to be tangentially related to science communication.[4] However, it is its own professional field pre-dating the formal study of science communications.[5]

By definition, agricultural communicators are science communicators that deal exclusively with the diverse, applied science and business that is agriculture. An agricultural communicator is "expected to bring with him or her a level of specialized knowledge in the agricultural field that typically is not required of the mass communicator".[6] Agricultural communication also addresses all subject areas related to the complex enterprises of food, feed, fiber, renewable energy, natural resource management, rural development and others, locally to globally. Furthermore, it spans all participants, from scientists to consumers - and all stages of those enterprises, from agricultural research and production to processing, marketing, consumption, nutrition and health.

A growing market for agricultural journalists and broadcasters led to the establishment of agricultural journalism and agricultural communication academic disciplines.

The job market for agricultural communicators includes:

  • Farm broadcasting
  • Journalists and editors of agricultural/rural magazines and newspapers
  • Communication specialist or public relations practitioner for agricultural commodity organizations, businesses, non-profits
  • Sales representative for agricultural business
  • Science journalist
  • Land-grant university communication specialist
  • Public relations or advertising for firms that specialize in or have agricultural clients
  1. ^ Harder, A., Roberts, G., & Lindner, J. R. (2021). Commonly Accepted Theories, Models, and Philosophies: The Subjective Norms of Our Discipline. Journal of Agricultural Education, 62(1), 196–211. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2021.01196
  2. ^ Velez, J. J., Moore, L. L., Bruce, J. A., & Stephens, C. A. (2014). Agricultural leadership education: Past history, present reality, and future directions. Journal of leadership studies, 7(4), 65-70. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21312
  3. ^ Doerfert, D. L. (Ed.) (2011). National research agenda: American Association for Agricultural Education’s research priority areas for 2011-2015. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University, Department of Agricultural Education and Communications.
  4. ^ Treise, D., & Weigold, M. F. (2002). Advancing science communication: A survey of science communicators. Science Communication, 23(3), 310-322.
  5. ^ Irani, Tracy and Doerfert, David L. (2013) "Preparing for the Next 150 Years of Agricultural Communications," Journal of Applied Communications: Vol. 97: Iss. 2. https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.1109
  6. ^ Boone, K., Meisenbach, T., & Tucker, M. (2000). Agricultural communications: Changes and challenges, Iowa State University Press.