Agronomist CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for an agronomist who started as a trainee crop walker, spent three years selling inputs for a farmer-owned co-operative and now advises independently. The employers and universities are not named. Swap the crops and hectares for your own region.

Agronomist jobs split into four kinds of employer, and each reads your CV differently. Work out which one you are applying to before you write a word.

• Independent consultancies and crop consultants: hectares and growers advised, retention, and whether your recommendations are documented. They sell judgement, so they hire for judgement.
• Distributors and co-operatives: your book of business, margin, account growth and whether you can sell without discounting. Sales numbers belong on the page.
• Seed, crop protection and machinery companies: territory size, trial and demonstration work, technical training delivered to distributors and growers, and product launch support.
• Research and public sector: trial design, statistics, publications and knowledge exchange work, plus the degree. A master's or PhD matters far more here than anywhere else.
• All four check two things: the BASIS Certificate in Crop Protection and FACTS. Put both in the header.

A crop walker reports what is in the field. An agronomist recommends what to do about it and lives with the outcome. Your bullets should show the recommendation and its result.

• Soils and fertility: soil analysis interpretation, RB209 nutrient planning, nitrogen timing and inhibitors, phosphate and potash placement, pH and lime, micronutrients, organic manures and digestate.
• Crop protection: pest and disease identification, economic thresholds, herbicide modes of action and resistance management, fungicide and insecticide timing, label and buffer zone (LERAP) compliance, drift management.
• Varieties and placement: variety selection using the AHDB Recommended List, hybrid or conventional choices, seed rate by soil zone, drilling date and seed rate trade-offs, disease resistance ratings.
• Precision farming: grid and zone sampling design, yield data cleaning, imagery and vegetation indices, application map creation, controller compatibility, GIS basics.
• Water and soil management: field drainage decisions, irrigation scheduling, cover crops, compaction and cultivation systems, erosion and run-off control.
• Trials and analysis: strip trial and small plot design, replication and randomisation, statistical basics, honest interpretation of a trial that did not work.
• Commercial: account planning, margin, quoting, early-order and prepay deals, product allocation, working with contract sprayer scheduling.
• Communication: written field reports, recommendation records, winter grower meetings, one-to-one conversations with a grower who disagrees with you.

Two qualifications carry real weight in agronomy hiring, and for anyone advising on or selling professional pesticides the BASIS certificate is generally a legal requirement rather than a nice-to-have. Details can differ across the four UK nations, so check current official guidance.

• BASIS Certificate in Crop Protection: the recognised qualification for anyone advising on or selling professional pesticides, earned through an assessed course and exams. Put it in your header and list it fully under qualifications.
• If you have not passed it yet, write the date: 'BASIS Certificate in Crop Protection exams booked for spring 2027'. Employers accept a candidate in progress.
• AICC membership: the Association of Independent Crop Consultants is the body for independent agronomists and has its own entry criteria. List it if you hold it.
• Pesticide application certificates (PA1 plus PA2 or PA6): not needed to give advice, but many employers like agronomists who can spray trials or cover for an operator. Name the modules you hold.
• Environmental scheme work: worth listing if you help growers with Sustainable Farming Incentive or Countryside Stewardship applications and plans. Scheme names change, so use the current ones.
• FACTS: the qualification for giving fertiliser and nutrient management advice, and the one buyers and some assurance schemes look for on a nutrient management plan. Name it exactly as on your certificate, for example 'FACTS Qualified Adviser'.
• Degrees: a degree in agriculture, crop science, soil science or plant science is the normal entry point. A master's helps for research, seed company technical roles and consulting. A PhD is expected in public research.
• CPD: the BASIS Professional Register and the FACTS register both expect points each year, so listing recent points or courses shows you are current. Two lines maximum.

Almost nobody walks straight into advising 8,000 hectares. The normal path is a trainee agronomist or crop walking season, then your own accounts. Write the CV for the job you can get next, not the one you want in five years.

1. 1Convert placements and summers into real entries with hectares, rotations and sample counts. '3,000 hectares walked on a 10-day rotation' is a professional line.
2. 2Put your PA1 and PA2 certificates on there. If you hold PA1 only, say so honestly and add when you will take the next module.
3. 3Say where you are with BASIS and FACTS. Enrolled, studying, or exams booked, with the date.
4. 4List the practical and field modules that map to the job: soil fertility, plant pathology, weed science, crop production, precision farming, statistics.
5. 5Include undergraduate research with plot counts and what you measured. It shows you can follow a protocol.
6. 6Name the software you can actually use: agronomy platforms, mapping tools, spreadsheets. Data handling is half of a junior agronomist's week.
7. 7Say you will work full drilling and harvest seasons, and whether you will relocate. Rural territories go unfilled because candidates will not move.
8. 8If you grew up on a farm, say the hectares and the crops. It is real context and hiring managers weigh it.

• Two pages at most. One page is fine for new graduates; consultants with a long client history, research agronomists with publications, or anyone managing a team will need two.
• Plain single-column layout, no photo, no date of birth. Co-operatives, distributors and seed companies all screen through applicant tracking software.
• Put BASIS, FACTS and your PA certificates in the header line. They are the first filters.
• Order: contact details, personal statement, experience, skills grouped by subject, qualifications, education. Research candidates add a short publications block.
• Mirror the advert: 'field agronomist', 'sales agronomist', 'agronomy sales', 'crop consultant', 'technical agronomist', 'BASIS', 'FACTS', 'variable rate', 'grid sampling', 'RB209', 'resistance management', 'customer base', 'territory'.
• For sales roles, put your numbers where they cannot be missed: book value, per cent of target, margin, accounts added and retained.
• Add a short list of the crops and farming systems you know. Managers scan for it and it takes two lines.
• Send a PDF named firstname-lastname-agronomist-cv.pdf.

“Show me hectares, growers and what happened to their yield or their input cost. Then show me your BASIS and FACTS. Plenty of candidates can describe soil chemistry beautifully and have never had to stand in a yard and defend a recommendation that went wrong.”