With the need to feed a growing population, a rapid uptake of new technology and a looming skills gap, East Anglia's land-based sector offers fertile ground for career opportunities.
The food and farming industry will need more than 595,000 new recruits in the next 10 years, according to recent research by Lantra, the UK's skills council for the land-based sector.
And in a world of satellite-guided precision and science-led efficiency, this means skilled and innovative youngsters are in demand throughout a broad range of roles, ranging from farm operatives and managers to agronomists, engineers and researchers.
Edge Careers, an initiative which aims to link farming employers together with young people and training providers across East Anglia, has recorded a 'significant increase' in the number of young people registering their CVs in 2016, with more than 200 looking for work and apprenticeship placements.
An Edge Careers spokesman says: 'The demand is for a wide range of jobs – not just the more traditional agricultural roles, like tractor driving and harvest work, but we have increasing numbers of people looking for more niche opportunities in careers like butchery and this must in part be influenced by a heightened public awareness of the food supply chain and the exciting jobs which it offers.'
Opportunities in land-based industries in East Anglia range from hands-on apprenticeships all the way through to post-graduate research roles at the Norwich Research Park, which employs 12,000 people including 3,000 scientists, researchers and clinicians.
Educators are responding to the challenge of attracting and training the right people for this diverse array of roles.
At the National Farmers' Union conference earlier this year, environment secretary and South West Norfolk MP Elizabeth Truss said farming is now the fastest-growing university subject, with a 4.6pc increase in student numbers last year, adding: 'There is a new generation excited about farming.'
It is a statement echoed at Easton and Otley College, where the numbers studying farm-related courses at its campuses in Norfolk and Suffolk have risen steadily since 2012. The college runs many farming and agricultural engineering courses which start with a schools programme for 14 to 16-year-olds and progresses up through apprenticeships to degree options, taught in affiliation with the University of East Anglia.
College spokesman John Nice says: 'Farming is moving at such a fast pace and needs to attract some of the brightest minds into the industry. Our courses teach a mixture of practical and hi-tech skills and once you receive the training you need, you can earn good money and work anywhere in the world.'
Organisations such as Agri-Tech East also aim to promote career options in the growing scientific and technological spheres associated with agriculture.
John Wallace, chairman of The Morley Agricultural Foundation, says: 'I most certainly think that agri-tech is making the agri-food industry a better career option for young people. It's really whizzy and attractive and it creates a competitive environment in which young people can do really well.'
• The are currently 17 agricultural jobs in Norfolk being advertised online at Jobs24. Find those and hundreds of other local vacancies at Jobs24.co.uk
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