TikTok and agriculture: National Farmers’ Federation sees opportunity

After revealing the growing interest in agriculture from young city people on TikTok, we ask farming bodies if they plan to take advantage of the trend. Have your say in our poll.

AUSTRALIA’S peak farming lobby has acknowledged the key role video-sharing platform TikTok may play in promoting agriculture to a traditionally hard to reach audience and plans to work with farmer TikTokers in the future.

It came after The Weekly Times revealed farmers on the app, who had experienced viral success, were reaching tens of millions of people across the world — mostly young people who knew little about agriculture and hundreds even interested in how to get a farm job.

University of Queensland associate professor Dr Stan Karanasios, an expert in how organisations use new digital technologies, said TikTok was a “gold mine of engagement” and farmers made ideal social media influencers.

He said agriculture bodies, lobby groups or government agencies should be working with TikTokers to capitalise on a growing interest in farming.

“Influencers are more about making farming more accessible, making people understand what it involves and the life of farming but they need these established bodies and agencies to help people with that transition,” he said.

“It would we a shame for the influencers to generate so much interest in farming only for the blockage to be with the institutional side of things when it comes to making those steps.”

Farmhand and TikToker Zoe Carter shared these concerns, saying there needed to be a massive change in the opportunities given to young people that don’t have access to farming.

National Farmers’ Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said it was great to see the emergence of so many engaging farming accounts sharing the story of the industry.

“TikTok and other social media platforms are powerful tools to connect all Australians with agriculture and the opportunities on offer in the farm sector,” he said.

“With farmers facing critical workforce shortages, more needs to be done to promote the opportunities available to Australian job seekers and social media has to be a key part of this promotion.

“The NFF has connected with popular farmer TikTokers and other influencers for events such as National Agriculture Day and we plan to continue to do more of this in the future.”

The Victorian Farmers Federation — peak lobby group of the state with the most popular farmer TikTokers — would not say whether it would enter the TikTok space or work with farmers on the platform, but The Weekly Times understands it may be under consideration.

The group was also unable to confirm if TikTok would be a social media channel used in an upcoming pro-agriculture campaign executed by the VFF and funded by the Victorian Government.

Victorian farmer and TikToker Peter Vallance, who has more than half a million followers on the app, said industry bodies who believed Twitter and Facebook was all they needed were “going to be sadly left in the dark”.

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