Agriculture plays a key role in everyday life. As the membership in the National FFA Organization continues to grow, it’s evident that students today understand the important role they can also play in agriculture.
The National FFA Organization has announced a record-high student membership of 945,988, an increase of 11 percent from last year. In addition, the number of FFA chapters continues to grow — increasing by 168 this year, resulting in 9,163 chapters in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“It’s exciting to see our numbers grow and know we continue to influence the next generation of leaders,” said National FFA CEO Scott Stump. “This generation is making a difference in their communities and agriculture. We’re excited to see the enthusiasm for agricultural education and FFA reflected in our membership.”
The top five membership states of the organization are Texas, California, Georgia, Illinois and North Carolina. This year, the organization has more than 150,000 Latino members, more than 50,000 Black members, more than 9,000 Asian members, more than 14,000 American Indian and Alaska Native members, and more than 2,400 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander members.
FFA continues to grow in Montana as well. Morgan Kuntz Director of Development for the Montana FFA Foundation told Northern Ag Network its an exciting time for Montana FFA with record numbers across the board.
“We’ve got a little over 6,600 across the state of Montana,” Kuntz said. “109 chapters, a couple more that are looking at coming on board this year. We’ll have 1,800 kids at our Ag Expo event in November at MSU. It’s incredible. What an exciting time to be a part of agriculture and I can tell you the future of agriculture is looking pretty bright.”
So what’s driving the increase in membership?
“I think the leadership aspect of FFA is a huge draw,” Kuntz says. “I also think the community aspect of FFA is a really big draw to these students, especially post-covid, where we as a society became fractured and isolated. So people are looking to get back into a community or a culture and there’s nothing more powerful to connect people than that blue corduroy jacket.”
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Northern Ag Network/National FFA
