Agriculture Consultant

Agriculture Consultants are also known as Agriculture Advisors and they have a number of clients who they offer their professional opinions to.  The main responsibility of an Agriculture Consultant is to ensure that their clients’ businesses are operating smoothly and efficiently.  Their clients could include: farmers, conservation organisations and landowners.  The areas of consultancy could be either technical or business related.  

In order to qualify as an Agriculture Consultant, you will need to have a formal qualification behind your name.  This could be in the form of a degree or diploma.  In most cases, the qualification will take a total of 3 to 4 years to complete.  You can opt to study a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management, a Bachelor of Commerce in Agricultural Economics and Risk Management as well or a Diploma in Agriculture.  Whether you choose to go down the technical or business route, you will develop a firm understanding of the agriculture industry as well as successful management practices. 

Your working hours will depend on the season as well as your clients.  In general, you will work a 9am – 5pm day with the possibility of meeting with clients outside these hours during busy periods.

As an Agriculture Consultant, your salary can vary depending on your clients and where you work.  In general, the annual average salary for an Agriculture Consultant in South Africa is R468 859 with an hourly rate of R225.

Here are a few things you can expect from a career as an Agriculture Consultant:

• the environment that you work in will usually be split between indoors and outdoors.  Depending on the nature of your consultancy, you might spend slighty more time either inside or outside.
• if you’ve established your own consultancy or work as a freelancer, working from home is common.
• you may spend quite a bit of time driving to meet with various clients.