Graduate Education Perspectives of Advancing Agronomy Via Public-Private Collaboration.

As the number of university faculty and undergraduate and graduate students in agronomic sciences decline, there is a growing demand for agronomists in both public and private positions to meet the food needs for the expanding world population.  This paper addresses some of the ways industry and university agronomy departments are addressing the need for trained agronomists.  Iowa State University MS-Agronomy distance program is one means of training MS level agronomist across the U.S. and the world.  Universities provide a number of opportunities for CCAs, crop consultants, and other agronomists to learn about agronomic issues.  Private companies are expanding their agronomic research on plant population, row spacing, variety selection for environmental condition, etc. and provide a number of fact sheets and website downloads of agronomic information for their seed dealers, retailers, and producers.  The future skills and competencies for agronomists will also be discussed.