Prof. Jyoti Kachroo and Shelleka Gupta
Agribusiness industry is now been evolving as a sunrise industry as it offers a great scope for generating Triple Bottom Line. Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is unquestionably the largest livelihood provider in India. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of agriculture and allied sectors in India reached US$ 151.8 billion in FY12. India is among the 10 leading exporters of agricultural products in the world; the country accounted for 2.07 per cent of global agricultural trade in 2012. The total value of the Indian food processing industry is expected to be US$ 194 billion by 2015 from a value of US$ 121 billion in 2012 (ICAR). It is growing at a much higher rate of 13% per annum in comparison to the industrial growth of 7%. As far as the manufacturing GDP growth in the 2011-12 is concerned, food processing sector has been witnessing a growth rate of 17% per annum as compared to 3-4% in many other sectors of the Indian economy.
Further, India’s Agri and processed food exports increased to 63% to set a record at Rs 101,504 crores (US$ 16.96 billion) in the first 10 months of 2012-13, as compared to Rs 62,244 crores (US$ 10.39 billion) in the corresponding period of last year 2011-12 (APEDA). Indian food and Agri sector is set to triple by 2020 from US $328 to US $895 Billion (IFAMA, 2012). Huge opportunities in Agribusiness are attracting investments in primary production as well as on the output side in food processing and distribution.
Opportunities for future growth potential in agribusiness industry is mainly fuelled by sustained economic growth, rising per capita income, urbanization and globalization, integration of the global food value chain, improvement in infrastructure for storage & transportation. Apart from this, Government subsidized food parks, tax breaks, increased FDI, public-private investment partnerships, increased spending on supply chain, modern retail formats and international road shows by the Government have propelled the industry’s growth.
All the Agri based industries that are moving on a high growth trajectory are demanding more capable people to manage growth. To meet the demand for Agribusiness professionals many renowned management schools have initiated Agribusiness Management program, to name few we have IIMA, IIML, IIPM Bangalore, MANAGE in the list.
The students with Agri business Management degree are easily absorbed by Government and the private sector organizations. Not only this, the demand for Agri – business degree is also very high in international markets as well. The milk and dairy industry that hires agri business professional are Cadbury, H.J.Heinz, Milk food , Mother Dairy, Nestle, Smith kline Beecham, Amul, Wockhardt etc. Major organizations in meat, poultry and fisheries are Godrej Agrovet, hind Industries, MAFCO, Bell foods, Alkbeer exports, CDF, Venky’s etc. Major recruiters from frozen food and vegetables industry are Dabur, HLL, MTR, priya foods, Godrej F&B, capital foods etc and in case of bakery products we have Britannia, ITC, Parle, Modern Foods, Shakti Bog, Surya Foods, Kellogg’s, and others.
Mohan Meakin, Sab Miller, United Breweries, Coca cola, Dabur, Godrej, Parle, Tata Tea, Goodricks, Assam Co, Apeejay tea are the major organizations from beverages industry that provide placements to agri business professionals. Then in the list we have Gits, Haldirams, rajbhog foods, rainbow foods, Tasty bite for ready to eat industry. Organic food industry too is booming and some of them that are looking for agri business professionals are Adi Naturals, APOF, Era Organic, Green World, REI agro, fabIndia etc. Apart from this many big retail chains such as Big Bazar, food bazaar, reliance fresh,aadhar etc are also hiring the Agri business management graduates.
Further more , then Agribusiness management students can opt for Government sector jobs as well. To name few, these students can also look for jobs in NABARD, FCI, FACT, NAFED, JAKFED and other departments under ministry of agriculture.Entrepreneurship is another field that offers great scope for MBA (Agri business). The recent report titled “Enhancing competitiveness of Indian food chain” by FICCI and KPMG (Nov, 2013), has highlighted that the India’s agri-business companies are likely to attract more funds in the coming years from the venture capitalist and private equity fund investors as they see huge potential in the farm sector. And as such there lies a greater scope for agri Business Management graduates to become entrepreneurs and start up their own ventures. Different organizations provide varied types of supports to the entrepreneurs for starting up the projects. The Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) Program at ICRISAT started in 2003, as joint venture between ICRISAT and Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India. ABI program offers agripreneurs with scientific and technical backstopping with state-of-the art infrastructural facilities. So far, ABI has incubated 208 agribusiness ventures, helped in commercializing 194 agro-technologies, benefited more than 50000 farmers and facilitated business development worth $17.3 million.
Students opting for MBA (Agri Business) can join in the warehousing, retail, seeds companies, processed food, fertilizers and pesticides companies, banks and insurance sectors. Those who have good potential can find excellent growth in these industries. They can join management experts in the agriculture related industries, policy makers in financial industries, teaching as well as in research fields. They can also look for a career in agriculture consultancy, journalism, agri banking, hi-tech farming and agriculture engineering sectors. So with increasing business options in this sector Agri-Business management is turning out into an attractive career for the youth.
To generate a brigade of professionally competent, socially responsible and technically qualified human capital with core management competencies in agribusiness, Sher-e-Kashmir university of Agriculture Sciences & Technology of Jammu (SKUAST -J) has also started The School of Agri-business Management (SABM) for providing MBA (Agri-Business Management) degree. School of Agri-Business Management (SABM) has taken the frontal lead in J&K for awarding MBA (Agri-Business Management) degree program as well as to undertake the research towards Agri-Business. The school has already developed the linkage with some of the industries/banks of the country for the internship and other project related activities. The school is striving hard to maintain the excellent academic environment and is in a process to develop the linkages with global institutions and the leading industries.
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