New full-time students are being invited to write a 1,000-word essay on one of three topics involving their future career, farming interests or the barriers facing young people entering the industry for the Farmers' Union of Wales annual £1,000 bursary award launched today (Thursday, August 25).
The topics are:
* How I intend to utilise the skills I gain from my course in my future career.
* Outline your interest in a particular topic or project associated with the land-based industries.
* What do you think are the main barriers facing young people entering the land-based industries today?
Last year the adjudicators awarded £700 to the bursary winner, 19-year-old Harper Adams University College student Phillippa Maidment. Phillippa, a keen member of her local young farmers' club, but with no direct link to farming, received her award from then FUW president Gareth Vaughan on the union's stand at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair last December.
The Monmouthshire student, who embarked on a rural property management course at Harper Adams University College, called for agriculture to be taught in schools from primary level, in a bid to improve the image of an industry in which the average age of a farmer in Wales is 59, in a 1,000-word essay submitted with her entry.
Entitled "What should the Welsh farming industry and government do to attract more young people into agriculture?" her essay suggested that as too few young people are choosing a career in agriculture there could be drastic effects on the farming industry.
"As the majority of farmers are members of the older generation there is a lack of new ideas coming into agriculture. This could be preventing farmers from increasing their income," wrote Phillippa, whose home is at Undy, near Caldicot.
A second bursary of £200 was handed to another Harper Adams student, 18-year-old Sion Gwynedd Roberts, of Simdde Hir, Llannefydd, near Denbigh, who is studying agricultural engineering.
And a third bursary of £100 was presented to 18-year-old Aberystwyth University student Gwyn Pierce, of Gelli-Haf, Llangyndeyrn, Carmarthenshire, who is studying agriculture with animal science.
Full details on how to apply for the bursary are included in a leaflet available from the FUW's head office in Aberystwyth (Tel: 01970 820820) or at any of the union's county branch offices.
The closing date for entries is October 1, 2011.