Training in agriculture has moved on from tractors to drones and sensorsThe modernization of national agricultural companies and the arrival of international investment funds have revolutionized the requirements of professionals in the sector.
As heir to a family genetically linked to agriculture, one of João Coimbra's sons followed in his father's footsteps and studied agronomy. If the rural world maintained the natural order of things, he would probably be working on the farm alongside his father today. But as he specialized in data analysis, “he was soon recruited to areas that don't have to do with agribusiness,” says João Coimbra.
He currently works for one of the international investment funds that have landed in Portugal in recent years in search of large tracts of land with water. And working with João Coimbra at the model Quinta da Cholda, in Ribatejo, where corn yields are twice as high as in the United States and four times higher than in Ukraine, is another son of his who has a degree in Management.
The case of the Coimbra family and Quinta da Cholda is therefore a good starting point for realizing that there is a vanguard in Portuguese agriculture that doesn't just require the knowledge of classical agronomy. It requires data processing, the use of digital technology, economic valuation methods, marketing, knowledge of consumer behavior, knowledge of public policies or the valuation of ecosystem services. At the forefront are, of course, agronomists, but also managers, engineers from other fields, or lawyers.
Naturally, among the executive training programs of schools at universities such as CAT+OLICA-LISBON, Nova SBE, Porto Business School or ISEG, executive training programs for these executives have begun to appear. The oldest, at ISEG, had eight editions until it was frozen by the pandemic, “we're under a lot of pressure to activate it,” says José Veríssimo, who was responsible for the training program and is a professor of Marketing.
In the Nova SBE program, Antonieta Cunha e Sá is responsible for the area of valuing ecosystem services, where she finds “a new way of looking at the economy”, more focused on sustainability. Porto Business School has held occasional training courses for managers in the wine sector and Católica has a 36-hour intensive program “with various modules where teachers and a series of specialists in different areas meet”, according to Filipe Ravara, who coordinates the training.
As a campaign run by the European Union-funded consultancy Consulai proclaims, “agriculture has evolved, only you haven't seen it”. In large companies in the production sector, in the agro-industry, in consultancies or in banking, interest in agribusiness has grown in step with competitiveness, innovation and internationalization.
“In commercial and technological agriculture, what is most needed today is not the knowledge of the old agronomist, but managers who, for example, are able to make forecasting or statistical models,” says João Coimbra. To be in charge of an area where corn is growing, “they need to be able to work with sensor systems that are not very different from those used, for example, in a hospital,” says João Coimbra.
The opening up of agriculture to the digital and technological world has transformed the profile of national companies. The production of mushrooms at the Varandas de Sousa company in Mirandela, tomatoes for the industry at the Sugal group of the Ortigão Costa family or olive oil at Sovena require transversal levels of specialization.
You have to use computers or sensors to determine water or nutrient needs in this or another area of the farm, part of what is known as precision agriculture. You also need to have knowledge of marketing, markets, sustainability, financing and possible support in the vastness of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy.
It's no longer just the Spanish, who made a strong contribution to the development of olive groves irrigated by the Alqueva, who are bringing capital and innovation to Portuguese agriculture. Nowadays there are Brazilian or American funds that are betting on almonds, red fruits and vegetables.
“I have that Anglo-Saxon perspective which considers that university is a preamble that opens your mind,” says Clara Moura Guedes, manager of Monte Pasto. “We have graduates in technical areas, but the fundamental thing is to have the capacity for differentiation and innovation, which is what generates value for us.”
An advanced agricultural company requires the same level of sophistication as an industrial company, for example. And, consequently, the same profile of highly qualified executives. The progress of executive training for agribusiness is a response to this change.
“College is a preamble that opens our minds”
Take the case of Monte Pasto, a cattle breeding and meat production company in the Baixo Alentejo which, at full production, can manage a herd of 12,000 cattle. The company, which was part of the Espírito Santo Group, was bankrupt when the bank went under. When she was appointed to recover it, manager Clara Moura Guedes thought she was starting not from scratch, but from “minus 40”. She knew little or nothing about veterinary science or animal feed, but she did have management experience in large consumer multinationals.
In a decade, he has turned the company around. Monte Pasto, which in the meantime has been acquired by a group based in Macau, has expanded its operating area, exports 95% of its production and generates a turnover of 30 million euros a year.
"Universities are becoming outdated. They're still in the age of the tractor, not the drone," notes academic Fontaínhas Fernandes, former rector of UTAD. “New issues like carbon sequestration in the soil need to be at the forefront of their concerns.”
The secret? Betting on human resources. “60% of the team have a degree,” says Clara Moura Guedes. And not just in Veterinary Science or Agronomy. "I have that Anglo-Saxon perspective which considers that university is a preamble that opens your mind. We have graduates in technical areas, but the fundamental thing is to have the capacity for differentiation and innovation, which is what generates value for us," says the manager. Based on this principle, Monte Pasto began renewing its team ten years ago and today its most senior staff are young people in their 30s. “This has changed, and even in family-run agricultural businesses there is more awareness of the importance of qualifications,” says the manager.
The change is so evident that, in a short space of time, the country has begun to suffer from a lack of graduates in the technical areas of agriculture and forestry. While the sector has a wider field of recruitment in management or in segments of precision agriculture, in the areas of other engineering, management or law, there is basic knowledge that is still considered essential, even executive training considers modules dedicated to these basic tools of agronomic science, for which there is a shortage of staff.
“In March we held a convention at the University of Trás-os-Montes (UTAD) that brought together academia and companies in the sector, and it became clear that there was a lack of resources in this area,” notes Fontaínhas Fernandes, an academic and former rector of UTAD.
It is somewhat as a result of this observation that agronomy and forestry were given a new status in the training priorities in a recent review of the Recovery and Resilience Program, the PRR, alongside health sciences or lifelong learning. “It's important to go to schools and motivate young people to take agronomy and forestry courses,” says Fontaínhas Fernandes. There are a thousand staff from the regional directorates of agriculture who will be retiring in the near future, the most qualified companies in intensive agriculture need qualified human resources and, despite the increase in demand, there are courses in these areas at universities that are still in short supply.
To be at the forefront of an area where corn is growing, it's important “to have the ability to work with sensor systems that are not very different from those used, for example, in a hospital,” says João Coimbra, from Quinta da Cholda, in Golegã.
There are several prejudices in this mismatch. With the exception of oenology and veterinary science, the other areas of agronomy “have a low social status”, says Fontaínhas. In the case of forestry engineering, the case is even more serious. “Nobody wants to work in an industry of misfortune,” notes the academic. But there's also a problem with the very image and organization of agronomy courses. "Universities are becoming outdated. They're still in the age of the tractor, not the drone. Agriculture 4.0, the use of spatial images or new issues such as carbon sequestration in the soil need to be at the forefront of their concerns," says Fontaínhas Fernandes.
As José Veríssimo says, “the sector needs more management than technique”, and the executive training courses have taken this on board. Their modules talk about seeds, the competitiveness of regional rows of certain products or, as Antonieta Cunha e Sá says, the importance of mastering the “basic concepts of economic theory”. This is, moreover, the vision that international funds apply in their recruitment programs.
In executive training, aimed at managers with different levels of relationship with the land, trees or seeds, the aim is to meet this cross-cutting need. In general, there are practical classes, study visits and case studies. At Católica, among the 25 to 30 trainees, there is always the concern “to open up places for young people from other degrees”, says Filipe Ravara. So that they can “get in touch with their elders”, explains the academic and manager.
The wave of funds
This knowledge will then be important not only to meet the recruitment requirements of public services or existing companies, but also to respond to the needs of national and international investment funds. “Before deciding, a fund like this wants to know where the land produces more or less, whether there is guaranteed water or not, what environmental impacts are expected, etc.”, says João Coimbra. “They don't come here looking for fantasies,” he adds. These demands from the funds have increased the role of consultancy firms, such as Consulai or Agroges. And when their investment intentions come to fruition, they open up the sector's job market to the most qualified staff.
It's no longer just the Spanish, who made a strong contribution to the advance of olive groves irrigated by the Alqueva, who are bringing capital and innovation to Portuguese agriculture. Nowadays, there are Brazilian and North American funds investing in almonds, red fruits and vegetables. Your search for efficiency changes everything.
In the almond grove of Rota Única, in the Baixo Alentejo, two engineers, Pedro Vieira and Inês Banaco, are enough to manage hundreds of hectares of plantations. According to José Pedro Salema, who runs the Alqueva Development and Infrastructure Company (EDIA), there are at least 20,000 to 25,000 hectares in the 170,000 hectare irrigation perimeter owned by entities linked to international funds. This gives an idea of the number of qualified staff that the new agriculture is employing.
It remains to be seen whether the trend of recent years will continue. Alqueva has reached such a point of success that, according to the accounts of Pedro Santos, general manager of Consulai, land prices “are now around 25 to 30 thousand euros per hectare”, when “a few years ago they were between 12 and 15 thousand”. In Ribatejo, demand is so high that João Coimbra is struggling to see how he can guarantee the growth of his model farm. A new wave of funds has found an alternative in the Idanha perimeter, which is now home to major investments in the almond grove by Awa (Agro Water Almonds), which announced an investment of 10 million euros in the region in 2021, Veracruz and Duck River.
But even if investment in new large farm areas is frozen, the change underway in the sector, which is motivating the use of qualified training, will not stop. “In the previous generation, farmers' children didn't want to stay in the family business,” says Clara Moura Guedes. “This has now changed.” The generational change and the examples of success will tend to prolong the movement of Portuguese agriculture towards the modernity of drones or sensors. The sector is definitely no longer the poor relation of the economy.
Manuel Carvalho