Robyn McCallum (BSc (Agriculture)’13) knows that adaptability and learning are key skills for today’s young farmers across Canada. The Faculty of Agriculture alumna and current PhD candidate at Dal’s Truro campus wrote about these elements in her entry to the national Excellence Award for Agricultural Students contest. She won third place.

The contest asked participants: “how can the agricultural industry best support young farmers looking to succeed in an ever-competitive and complex global marketplace?” McCallum’s insightful blog entry highlights three major elements as most important: skills support, trust, and de-stigmatization.

Mentorship, she explains, is “a critical component of young farmer success.” McCallum praises Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture Mentorship Program, through which alumni share expertise and advice with students, as an invaluable model that should be implemented throughout Canada.

Read the full story by Emma Geldart on the  Faculty of Agriculture website.