By Melanie Jacob
Journal Editor
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The prairies is the heart of Canada and agriculture is Saskatchewan's life blood. To support this, the government has proclaimed October as Agriculture Month in Saskatchewan.
"Agriculture is on of our three main industries in the province. It's extremely important to the standard of living," said Lyle Stewart, Agriculture Minister for Saskatchewan. "The purpose of this month is to bring awareness to how much agriculture brings to our economy."
The industry generates over 10 per cent of the province's gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 50,000 jobs. Recent advancements in the last decade have opened the door for all industries to get involved in one way or another.
As such, this month will be focusing on raising awareness of the career opportunities for youth.
"We're asking youth to consider it in their future plans," said Stewart. "We find that as current generations are generally farther removed from farming and ranching, they have less awareness of what a dynamic science-based environment and sustainable advanced industry agriculture is."
According to Stewart, there are all sorts of opportunities such as in the sciences, research and development. Most people, if not directly involved with farming, are unaware of the career potential.
"Whatever a youg person likes to do, you can apply that to agriculture and focus those skills on the industry," he said. "It's as diverse or more than any industry I can think of."
