This week we celebrated Agriculture Awareness Day.

Work being done by farmers, ranchers, agronomists, ag-chem retailers, veterinarians, research scientists and crop breeders all contribute to the success and growth of the ag sector.

There are a wide variety of jobs in the Ag sector from farm labour to agronomists to research scientists and crop breeders.

Michelle Hubbard is a Research Scientist in Pulse Pathology at the Swift Current Research and Development Centre.

She enjoys her job and talks about why she chose a career in Agriculture.

"One of the things that motivated me originally is just the importance of food supply and how much that affects everything in our lives," she said. "Then with growing human population and potentially climate change and the rising cost of fuels and important, it seems with my background in biology it was an area where I could make a contribution."

Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector contributes over $110 billion to our economy.

Mervin St. Luce is a research scientist in the Soil Science department at Swift Current’s Research and Development Centre.

He grew up on the island of Dominica and says he didn’t grow up on a farm but he loved agriculture,  growing vegetables with his mom and playing in the soil,

"I would sit in my backyard and just look at plants, and they were just fascinating to me and how they grew," he said. "You just put a seed in the ground, and you get a crop. It was something that had interested me, so I pursued that and went all the way and then it brought me Canada to do my Ph.D. and know I am at Swift Current and I'm thankful for that."

St Luce encourages youth to think about a career in Agriculture noting there are a number of opportunities in the industry today.