A leading agricultural research scientist has confirmed the growing number of career opportunities for young people within farming and food..
Dr. Sinclair Mayne, the former president of the British Society for Animal Science, made the point courtesy of his address to the 2025 ABP Angus Youth Challenge Awards.
He added: “I want to encourage as many young people as possible to follow a career path within the agri-food sector.
“This is wonderful industry to be involved in: there are fantastic opportunities across a whole range of careers.”
Dr. Mayne also reflected on the opportunities for growth within farming and food.
“Back in 1957, there were 2.8 billion people in the world,” he said.
“Today that figure has risen to 8.3 billion, with the anticipation that the world’s population will rise to 9.7 billion by 2050.
“That’s a lot of people who need to be fed every day.
“And sometimes we underestimate how successful farming has been over the years in managing to feed this growing population.”
According to Dr. Mayne, the challenge facing agriculture is not just that of producing food for a burgeoning population but also ensuring that it is made available in a wholly sustainable manner.
He explained: “We have huge pressures coming on to ensure that how we produce food actually helps to protect and improve the environment.”
Opportunities for NI agri-food
In this context, Dr. Mayne believes that Northern Ireland’s farming and food sectors can avail of myriad opportunities.
A case in point is the growing demand for high quality dairy and red meat food products on a global basis.
He continued: “Most consumers in developing countries are opting for a western diet.
“On the basis of this trend alone, global dairy consumption is projected to rise by 50% over the coming years: the equivalent figure for red meat is 25%.
“Moreover, all of this will have to be achieved at a time of climate change where many areas of the world are constrained in their ability to produce food.
“All of this means there will be less land available, less fertilisers and a fast decreasing fall-off in many of the other inputs that are used to produce crops today.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Mayne believes Northern Ireland to be a powerhouse of food production.
“The figures are there to prove this,” he stressed.
“Currently, Northern Ireland accounts for 17% of UK milk production and 16% of total beef output.
“The equivalent figures for chicken and egg output are 30% and 20% respectively.
“Agriculture in Northern Ireland currently produces enough protein to feed 10 million people.”
Courtesy of his conclusions, Dr. Mayne highlighted the tremendous improvement in efficiency levels that have been achieved on farms across Northern Ireland over recent years.
Taking dairy as a case in point, he confirmed that total output levels within the sector had doubled over the past four decades while the carbon footprint associated with each litre of milk produced had halved over the same period.
