Keeping the industry of agriculture strong doesn’t just involve tools and technology. It also requires education, both to keep knowledge flowing and to allow for new ideas.

With that in mind, a new partnership between the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and National FFA Organization, which represents local Future Farmers of America chapters, has the potential to lift up agricultural education in the present day.

This week, the two groups announced that they had partnered to find ways to assist their members as well as agriculture as a whole. The groups represent members throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands.

“This is an opportunity for us to share the story of agriculture and agricultural education,” noted Mark Poeschl, the CEO of the National FFA Organization, in a news release.

The partnership will allow the groups to determine connections between local FFA and Farm Bureau chapters and also work together to broaden the scope of agricultural education to account for the industry’s shifting needs. In addition, AFBF will allow FFA to use its advocacy resources at the state level.

AFBF President Zippy Duvall added that the approach builds upon the industry’s ongoing efforts to support learning.

“Farm Bureau has long supported agricultural education’s critical role of creating opportunities for the next generation of agricultural professionals,” Duvall said in the news release. “This formal collaboration with National FFA will help us build on that legacy.”

The memorandum of understanding between the two groups was signed during a meeting of state Farm Bureau presidents in Washington, DC.

(Terps Travel/Flickr)