Drought, soaring input costs such as fuel and fertiliser, booming land values, diminishing margins, and an ever-growing list of interests groups that want to pillory farmers - there are plenty of disincentives for young people to pursue a life on the land.

While the National Farmers' Federation should be commended for its efforts in encouraging school students to pursue careers in agriculture, the future young people face will be vastly different to that of a generation ago.

Increasingly, farming itself is becoming corporatised. While many ordinary farmers object to diminishing margins, corporate agriculture often has the capital backing, be in from the share market or private investors, to avoid crippling debt and thus allowing them a decent return on investment.

That capital backing also means the corporations are able to diversify their holdings to secure income streams in a way that few family farmers could dream of.

There is nothing illegal or unreasonable about any of this, but many feel it is contrary to the fabric of the rural culture, of what made the bush an intrinsic part of the Australian psyche.

The legends of the bush were of hard-working pioneer families and, succeed or fail, nearly anybody could have a go as governments encouraged the individual to be part of building the nation inland.

But now, without some form of capital behind them, it is nigh on impossible for a young and capable farmer to afford a start by buying a block big enough to support a family and there seems little government interest in helping them.

Instead young people increasingly face a future of working in agriculture, but not as a family farmer.

For many, the closest they will get to that dream will be as a property manager for someone else who can afford the price of entering the rural property market.

For others a career in agriculture may mean providing their knowledge to others by working in the rural services sector, as scientists or consultants or the like.

There is no shame in any of these pursuits - indeed, they will be careers like those in most other fields, in which people are paid a salary for their skills.

But it will be a different future with different expectations than those of years past which were based upon the pioneering spirit of crafting a future from the land with one's own bare hands.

What do you think?