India has had a history rich with agriculture, from the earliest records of settlers starting crop rearing on Indus valley grounds and laying the foundation of civilization to the popular slogan by the government in the 20th century ‘Jai Javaan Jai Kisaan’ (Hail Soldiers, Hail Farmers). Agriculture was the crutches that held our country up even when the British monarchs left our country’s feet broken, back in 1947 when they left.
We saw an opportunity to learn and slowly but surely agriculture picked up the pace and after countless mishaps and failures and an entire green revolution that modernized the methodology followed in India by leagues, agriculture came through as a major driving force behind the economy. No hopes were placed in our country at the very beginning, the West saw us as freed slaves and nothing else, we were merely an imperial outpost for trading spices and getting cheap labor but all of it changed when we became a trillion-dollar economy- six decades after we had won independence and a great chunk of it belonged to agriculture.
With that said, agriculture is no easy job. As our current technological standard suggests we’re very dependent on the weather and most irrigation systems only remain supplementary to torrential rain. Evidence from past disasters like droughts and irregular monsoons has resulted in dramatic losses in produce and drying out and the death of healthy farmland. The industry is in grave need of technological advancement and over everything else better management.
As it stands today, the agriculture sector in India, although large, is still filled with people with micro-farms and farmers that aren’t qualified and are either in debt or barely scraping by somehow. Management skills are not only crucial to fix some of these problems, but in case of ambition and drive to manifest into actually expanding farming enterprises, management is key. This scenario has created a market filled with dire need and demand for Agricultural Business Managers and its rapid fulfillment is not only beneficial to the businesses but pivotal for the Indian economy.
Of course, agriculture being an extremely delicate matter intertwined with a plethora of nuances- specialization is important. Specialized management courses prepare differently aligned professionals to prepare themselves to deal with different aspects of farming needs. Bachelor’s in biotechnology, seed or plant industries, agrochemical industries is preferred but a general non-technical foundation degree will work as a prerequisite to the management course. NMAT by GMAC, CAT, XAT, MAT, GMAT, UPES-MET, etc. are popular but difficult national level entrance examinations held in India to qualify for entering a decent B-School. The fees for these courses varies remarkably depending on the B-School the student ends up in but is lump sum 20-22 Lakhs for one of the top IIMs and about 7-12 Lakhs for any of the next to top tier B-Schools.
The most prominent recruitment for Agricultural Business Management is by Large farm estates and smaller farms, Research institutes, Agricultural colleges, Farm management consultancy firms, Food production, and manufacturing companies along with semi-government establishments set to promote agriculture. The most common agriculture business management career opportunities available to pass outs are Crop production, planning manager, Seed production, operations manager, Crop Manager, Crop consultant, Commercial greenhouse managers, Crop analyst, Agricultural crop farm manager, Integrated pest management specialist, Nursery and garden center managers, etc. The average salaries offered to the hired candidates are 6.5 to 8 Lakh per annum for entry-level candidates and scales up to 12-14 Lakh per annum for seasoned individuals.
India still owes most of its GDP to agriculture, about 17% and over 60% of our one billion and three hundred and fifty million-plus population have found agriculture as their chief source of income. With an industry of that size, it’s safe to say that management needs will not shrink for a very long time to come, the current demand isn’t even satisfied yet and with growing businesses and government support backing them, Agricultural Business management has good prospects in India.
