However, the industry, across most sectors, has found itself under pressure due to an over-reliance on interstate and international workers, to fill the on-farm and around-farm jobs on offer.

Tasmanian-based Nuffield scholar Clare Peltzer believes there needs to be more cohesion between education pathways and the agriculture industry, to ensure that children are exposed to agriculture as often as possible during those formative years.

Ms Peltzer recently released her paper on how Tasmania could become a test site for the "science capital" framework, that is used in the United Kingdom, to help bridge the gap between science and STEM subjects, and industries like agriculture.

"There is a real disconnect, when you find students at secondary school, that their exposure to agriculture peters off," she said.

"So we need to work hard as an industry to recapture that and work on more exposure programs to filter them to agriculture."

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Ms Peltzer said building social capital was a pillar for many Australian primary industry bodies, but there is not a well-organised or recognised pathway for an excited 12-year-old or post-16-year-old undergoing vocational or technical education into a career.

"The full spectrum of career prospects available in agriculture are not well understood and therefore not pursued, so we need to expose students to authentic agricultural experiences across both urban, regional and remote schools," Ms Peltzer said.

In Tasmania, primary school aged children are exposed to agricultural programs like the Chooks in Schools program, and industry-led programs such as Cows Create Careers.

However, these are opt-in programs, don't reach a large cohort of students in the curriculum and are aimed at primary school pupils.

Ms Pelzer said there was momentum in Tasmania, with the establishment of the Agriculture Centre for Excellence at Hagley Farm School, along with other farm schools around the state, to create network hubs, but what was lacking was a framework.

She said there was the focus should be on retaining young people's interest in agriculture - because already there was a focus on attracting them, through the above primary school programs.

Secondary students, at high school and college, and even those entering tertiary education do not have enough exposure to agriculture and its associated careers to make informed decisions.

Ms Peltzer travelled to Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Qatar, Romania and the United States of America in 2019 to meet with schools and industry bodies to learn how they attract and keep young people interested in agriculture.

"Through my travels I identified a number of established and successful programs working to attract students into post-16 agricultural studies. However, like Australian-based programs, they are frequently implemented in isolation and not revisited during pivotal schooling years," she said.

Certificate III agriculture students at Lilydale District School said they had all been exposed to agriculture at a young age, but that exposure dropped off the further they went through their education.

Student Tasha Gardiner said she had not started her secondary education leaning towards agriculture.

"It was really a last minute decision for me, I wanted to be a hairdresser, but I tried that and realised that I hated it," she said.

Fellow student Ayden Young said he'd always been interested in hospitality, and was thinking about getting a job in the industry, but was studying agriculture as a way to complement that.

"This way I can go work in a winery, or something like that," he said.

Johannes Duindam is a farmer at heart; growing up on a family farm at Deloraine. His aspirations are to take over the family farm from his father, and help his brother run the business.

However, he said that when he went to high school, there wasn't much around to expose him to the agriculture education and experiences he was used to growing up on a farm.

The group, who all went to high school and college in or near Launceston, said their understanding of agricultural careers was limited, and they didn't have much exposure to it at all.

Hagley Farm School is bucking that trend, by embedding agriculture into its curriculum for all pupils who are enrolled, but also by establishing a visitor centre, to encourage primary and secondary students to attend and experience the facilities.

Hagley Grade Four pupils Charlie McGrath, Ava Fenton, Emily Slyp and Dean Pinel said they enjoyed their experiences on the farm.

"We are so lucky to have animals and a farm like this, I love learning about all of the animals," Miss Fenton said.

The group said they enjoyed their agriculture lessons so much they did hope to continue them in high school, but doubted they'd get the experience as not many high schools had school farms.

Miss Fenton said her mother had wanted her to go to an agricultural school, after she was exposed to it at an early age.

"We moved out to Hagley so that I could come here," she said.

Mr Pinel said his cousin had a farm, and he'd spent a lot of time out there when he was younger, but the experiences he had at Hagley were better than anything he did as a child.

"It's just not the same, even when you're living on a farm," he said.

Hagley visitor centre food and fibre teacher Scott Watson said the school was in a unique position to help encourage and foster agriculture experiences across age cohorts in Tasmania.

"At Hagley Farm School students now have a food and fibre lesson book that contains evidence of their learning just like any other subject," Mr Watson said.

"The visitor centre begins a student's exposure, enjoyment and interest in food and fibre/agriculture during the early childhood years and builds on that as they move up through the grades.

"The ability to offer high-quality hands-on learning experiences gets students hooked early, eager to continue their engagement with food and fibre/agriculture."

Mr Watson said the visitor centre had experiences available for all students, of all ages, and was working to develop more education programs in conjunction with partners such as the TFGA to reach a greater number of students and a greater age range.

He said a number of programs planned for term 4 were designed for 11 to 13-year-olds to interest, excite and explore opportunities.

Lilydale student Ayden Young said he enjoyed studying agriculture because it was hands-on and he got to work outside.

"There's never a dull moment...you have to think on your feet a lot out here," he said.

Mr Young said agriculture was about learning to adapt with the materials you had, rather than going to buy new things, because often you didn't have the time or the ability to buy from scratch.

He said it was a rewarding career pathway and it had good job outcomes, and plenty of work.

Ms Peltzer said despite agriculture, particularly in Tasmania, having good job outcomes, the pathway to employment wasn't clear.

She said an industry employment and education framework is needed to support and nurture young people towards a career in agriculture, which would bolster the industry with a flexible and motivated workforce.

Ms Peltzer is a 2019 Nuffield Scholar and was supported by Meat and Livestock Australia on her research trip.