Why should agriculturalists be active on social media?

A sweltering summer’s day in the Lowveld, the sun at its zenith baking down into the valleys. Shrill cicadas cut short by the mechanical hum of a tractor’s engine and the dull thundering of a plough ripping through topsoil. A young boy stands on the edge of the field, watching. The rich smell of freshly turned earth floods his nostrils.

This is one of many childhood memories watching my grandfather with bemused curiosity, as he transformed a landscape in front of my eyes. A plant-breeder by profession, he instilled in me a deep-seated fascination for the world. I spent many an hour lost in the maze of gardens, greenhouses, and cultivated fields utterly mesmerised by his craft. However, these experiences did not exist in a vacuum. As I grew older the ecological impacts of the agro-food system and the inequalities of our country became increasingly evident to me. I saw that my childhood memories were a product not only of my grandfather’s hard work as a scientists and a pioneer in the South African plant breeding community, but also of his access to quality education and governmental support for land and agricultural inputs. I knew that I wanted to leverage my own privilege and interest in agriculture to play a part in creating a more sustainable and equitable food system in South Africa.

I hold a BSc in Applied Plant and Soil Sciences from the University of Pretoria, where I am currently finishing off an MSc in agronomy. My research looks at how small-scale farmers across sub-Saharan Africa use social media to form online communities, and identifying how these platforms can be used for agricultural extension, training, and to enhance university-community engagement. I absolutely love my work and can talk about it for hours on end, so much so that there is a TEDx talk about it.  However, most people don’t share my enthusiasm for what my law friends call ‘the study of grass and dirt’, and our field faces an image problem on two fronts.

Firstly, the general-public’s perception of the agricultural industry is plagued by misconceptions and misinformation. The erosion of trust in the system is attributed to a history of poor science communication, the meddling of political and corporate interests, and the repercussions of unsustainable practices. We see sensationalised reports of how the food system is broken and needs to be fixed, but the food system is not a single entity that can be mended with a few patches or a panacea. It is a complex and multifaceted entanglement of humanity, agroecosystems, economic and environmental policy, science, technology, and climate. It is by no means a perfect system, but it is a system that has been under constant development and refinement for the last 10 000 years. More than ever before the general population is isolated from the communities that feed them. As agriculturalists we need to win back the trust of people who will likely never plant a seed in their lives, in order to lobby for the evidence-based policies needed to create a more sustainable and equitable food system. Secondly, as outlined in the 2017 ASSAf consensus study ‘Revitalising Agricultural Education and Training in South Africa’, the agricultural sciences face a number of structural and institutional challenges in recruiting and retaining the next generation of agricultural scientists and academics. The reality is that (to quote the study) “agriculture is not a career of first choice”, and we face a desperate shortage of students across our respective disciplines.

I believe social media is the solution to both of these problems. On these platforms we can connect directly with our consumers, allowing us to show the human element of the industry and unpack the nuances behind contested but scientifically-supported practices. At the same time we can give prospective students a real-time view into our fields, orchards, pastures, profile pits, and labs. To do this we need more farmers, agronomists, horticulturalists, geneticists, plant pathologists, soil scientists, agricultural engineers, weed scientists and crop biophysicists generating online content about our work.  One of my goals of 2020 is becoming one of these agronomists, creating content not only about my work but also about the complexities and oddities of the global food system. I am thrilled to be a part of the 2020 SAYAS blogging team and to share this experience with you!