Taking Stock: Identifying the Growing Agricultural Service Sector in Australia

In this article we review the literature on the service sector relating to agricultural producers and agribusinesses. The review reveals a significant gap in the literature regarding the 'professional agriculture services sector'. This sector comprises those services accessed by the broader business community, such as legal, financial and marketing services, as well as agriculture-specific professional services such as production benchmarking, information technology that supports farm management, land valuation, machinery services, education providers, agronomy, production benchmarking and farm succession planning facilitation. The identification of this sector provides a launching pad for understanding a hidden area of agricultural employment. Like the broader economy, pressures of global competition coupled with technological innovation, have created demand for professional rather than non-professional workers in the agriculture sector. Whilst official Australian data show employment in agriculture is declining, we argue that employment generated by this sector may be more widely captured in service sector statistics. The identification of the professional agriculture service sector enables a more accurate view of employment trends in agriculture and has application for businesses, government and education providers.