EXETER — Some of the 45 Future Farmers of America members were asked about the future of farming at their 2008 state convention yesterday.

“I think the future of agriculture is in technology, because that keeps moving forward,” said Elizabeth LaPrise of Exeter, the Rhode Island Association’s parliamentarian who learned yesterday that she will be installed next week as president.

As she started to talk about robotic milking machines, she was pulled away to confer on a minor crisis –– the need to initiate a game to fill an unexpected 10-minute delay.

The large downstairs hall of Exeter Chapel on Route 102 was filled with young people in blue suede FFA jackets embroidered on the front with their name and on the back with Rhode Island, a large gold emblem and the name of their school — Chariho, Exeter-West Greenwich, Narragansett, Ponaganset or Scituate. One Sunday school classroom was being used as a holding area for contestants waiting to be called in for mock job interviews that were being scored by judges.

“It’s becoming more advanced,” said Anne Morreira, a junior from Charlestown who goes to Chariho High School. Biotechnology is offered in schools, she said, and careers are available in business operations on increasingly large-scale farms out West.

“There’s more science-based technology, and business is becoming part of it,” said Jennifer Castro, a sophomore from Narragansett.

Chris Blanchette, a junior and treasurer of the Scituate group, said agriculture is being replaced by machinery and industry, and ag classes get smaller every year. He and his friends “are trying to keep it going.”

“Agriculture will always have to be here,” Christine Kissinger of West Greenwich said, “because you are always going to need food.”

Morreira added, “farming is always going to be a hands-on kind of thing.”

Kissinger, the state association’s secretary, said FFA members try to promote agriculture because “Maybe people don’t realize how crucial agriculture is to our country.”

Abbie Whitford, who has been in FFA since the eighth grade and serves as the association’s vice president, said that each candidate for state office had to stand before the judges and speak about what he or she would change in the Rhode Island FFA. Her ideas were about improving fundraising and community awareness.

Judging by the workshops presented by young officeholders who planned, set up and pulled off the convention, the lessons in leadership, team building and communication are working.

Steve Breene, association president; Emma Morton, reporter; and Steve Kettle, sentinel, shepherded students smoothly into groups and subgroups for games that made points about trust. A computer projected the material onto a wall and they demonstrated some of the behaviors themselves –– encouraging rather than criticizing, helping group members use their unique strengths rather than focusing on unwanted behaviors, and being open, supportive and cooperative.

A talent show featured a magic act, country singing, line dancing and an original rap song that rhymed hay, hay, hay with FFA.

“You just gotta go from being nervous to having fun,” said John Siligato of Narragansett, the state group’s treasurer, who gave a workshop on character with Liz LaPrise.

Brady Revels, vice president of the Southern Region FFA from Bushnell, Fla., addressed the convention and will tour the state, visiting t schools and farms.

After a story about the first time he drove a combine, he gave the future leaders this advice: “If you grab life by the wheel, it will take you where you want to go.”

dnaylor@projo.com