Agricultural consultant : Employers and vacancy sources

The main types of employment for agricultural consultants and advisers are:

• ADAS , which is an agricultural and environmental consultancy;
• the public sector - with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and its Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE)
• charitable organisations, such as the National Trust , and environmental and conservation bodies such as the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) , the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)  and wildlife trusts;
• non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International (CABI)  
• property firms that have specialist agricultural divisions;
• farming cooperatives;
• commercial companies supplying products, equipment and services to the industry.

There is also the opportunity to be a self-employed consultant and the Association of Independent Crop Consultants (AICC)  has over 200 members.

Sources of vacancies

• Search graduate jobs on this site.
• Farmers Weekly    
• Farmers Guardian   
• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)  
• ADAS   
• National Trust Jobs    
• Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG)  
• De Lacy Executive    
• Land-Force   
• Guardian Jobs  - includes an environment section.
• Local press.

Agricultural colleges and university schools of agriculture usually have established contacts within the industry and may have information on job vacancies.

For a list of agricultural consultancies and contacts that may be useful for speculative applications see:

• Association of Independent Crop Consultants (AICC) List of Members  
• The British Institute of Agricultural Consultants (BIAC) Directory Search    
• First Directory   

Get tips on job hunting, CVs and covering letters and interviews.