Uni students see the overseas side of agriculture

Third year agricultural science students Ayla Christophers, Darwin, and Emma Knowles, Loxton, had their eyes opened to the ag industry in the United Kingdom and Indonesia through trips organised by the university.

Ms Christophers lived in the UK from September 2022 to February 2023, and said she had been keen to do an exchange since the start of university, and was glad she made the most of the opportunity.

"I ticked off the stages of my application process one by one," she said.

"I got to the stage where I'd been accepted into the University of Nottingham and I just thought I'd go for it and I'm so glad I did."

Ms Christophers said she found the scale of farms in the UK very different to Australian farms.

"The agricultural systems in Australia and England are really different, particularly scale wise," she said.

"Their farms are a lot smaller scale then ours and they were sort of shocked when we were talking about the huge broadacre farms we have here in Australia."

The opportunity to meet new people with her friend from Adelaide Abi Egel, was one that Ms Christophers said she thoroughly enjoyed.

"I've made friends for life over there, it was just fantastic to get to know people from another country," she said.

"Living abroad has really helped us with problem solving in everyday life, through just having less of a support network over there and having to rely on yourself when things go wrong."

Ms Christophers said she would love to return to the UK at the conclusion of her studies, while pursuing a future in agriculture.

"I'm probably going to go into agronomy in either the cotton industry or the horticulture industry," she said.

"It's really common for Australians to get a two-year visa and to go and work in the UK, so I'd love to go back for a little bit and work over there."

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Ms Knowles was based in Indonesia from January to February and said she had always had an interest in overseas travel and loved the opportunity to travel there.

"This opportunity presented itself through communicating with my lecturer and talking about previous opportunities that other students have had to study overseas," she said.

"I'm quite fortunate that this is the first year that the program that I went on has been running, since COVID.

"I went with the Australian Consortium for 'In-Country' Indonesian Studies, so I saw that and thought I may as well apply and see how it goes."

Ms Knowles said she enrolled in a course titled the Agricultural Professional Practicum in Indonesia, which led to her meet a wide range of people.

"It was basically an insight into the agricultural industry in Indonesia, which I thoroughly enjoyed learning about, " she said.

"As part of my course I got to spend two weeks in Jakarta and that was sort of the more academic period, where I got to meet with various professionals from different industries in Indonesia and ask them questions."

While in Indonesia, Ms Knowles said she noticed numerous differences to Australia, such as the climate.

"We live in the driest state on the driest continent, whereas over there it's far more tropical and the cultural and political dynamics make agriculture significantly different to here in Australia," she said.

"It's culturally different as in our country a lot of the agriculture enterprises are owned by more established companies or individuals with quite a bit of land, particularly in the horticulture sector.

"In the horticulture sector over there, there was quite a lot of stand alone farmers with a small amount of land."

Ms Knowles said she was well educated on the economic partnership between Indonesia and Australia, during her trip.

"I found it quite interesting to learn how we partner with them and how Indonesia performs in their own right as an agricultural country," she said.

A key aspect of the trip that was particularly interesting for Ms Knowles was the observation of the use of forestry in Indonesia.

"They utilise and adapt all the fruits, bamboo and rattan and any of those forest plants and then incorporate them into their daily lives," she said.

Ms Knowles said as she edges closer to the completion of her studies, she hopes to combine her passion for horticulture with a life in Indonesia, but is happy to see what opportunities arise in Australia.

"I'm very happy to stay here and see what opportunities present themselves with Australian horticulture," she said.

"I'm thoroughly enjoying being here, but it was an excellent opportunity and I would love to go back."