In agronomy centers across the Midwest, there is a serious shortage of qualified applicator technicians and agriculture sales and service staff. Because of this shortage, Agriliance has teamed up with the Agriculture Department at Ridgewater College-Willmar Campus to offer a two-year program in Agronomy Tech. It is the goal of this partnership to provide education and work experiences to students who will become employees of local Agriliance cooperatives. This program was initiated because of the severe shortage of qualified custom applicators. The demand for custom applicators should continue to increase in Minnesota. Present agricultural programs will not be able to meet the increasing need for Agronomy Tech graduates.
One of the benefits of this program is that each student may be sponsored by a local Agriliance cooperative. Each student in the program may return to the sponsoring cooperative for a supervised occupational experience which may turn into permanent employment.
