Smart Skills
Cultivated interest
Usha Albuquerque

There is a new buzz, and this time it is spreading into farms and villages — it is the buzz of a new and fast-expanding career opportunity — agri-business. Agriculture across India is heralding the country's second green revolution. An increasing export potential and a rapidly growing domestic demand for reliable farm produce from new supermarket chains is driving this change.

Reliance on agri

Agricultural sectors such as horticulture, floriculture, development of seeds, animal husbandry, pisciculture, aqua culture, cultivation of vegetables, mushroom under cultivated conditions and services related to agro and allied sectors are open to 100 per cent FDI through the automatic route.

The Bharti Group, in collaboration with UK's Rothschild, has already started shipping fresh fruits and vegetables from Punjab to West Asia, Canada and the United States. Reliance Retail is investing US$ 5.6 billion, in a chain of stores — Reliance Fresh, which bring farm produce from farms on several thousand acres in Punjab, West Bengal and Maharashtra to urban centres.

FieldFresh, planning to become India's first large-scale exporter of produce, will annually pay farmers and their workers over US$ 30,000 to lease land for vegetables.

Besides a five-year program with the Punjab government to provide several hundred farmers with four million sweet-orange trees for its Tropicana juices by 2008, PepsiCo has also introduced farmers to high-yielding basmati rice, mangoes, potatoes, chilies, peanuts, and barley for its Frito-Lay snacks.

And, ITC, the pioneer in the agriculture sector is extending its e-choupal scheme, of internet kiosks in rural villages, to many more states, so farmers can access the latest information on weather, current market prices, foods-in-demand, etc.

With 77 per cent of India's population relying on agriculture for a living, improved efficiency and new markets is benefiting a large number of people. So, the recent initiatives in the area of agri-business will not only ensure maximum utilisation of perishables while providing fresh foods at economical prices to urban populations, but also give the farmer more money and a worthwhile future, and create thousands of new jobs for young people.

Agro-business includes industries that sell raw or processed farm products, and those that process farm products for further commercial use. With the advent of retail into India, larger and larger quantities of farm produce are now available in retail outlets across the country.

Field wide open

Agro-business also includes the production of seeds and fertilizers, machinery and equipment for use in farming, and the production and marketing of these products for farm use. It also includes providing of banking, insurance and financial services to the farming community and relevant information.

A number of corporates and co-operatives are getting into the area of farming, and contract farming, to provide support and inputs to the farmer and producer. Agricultural graduates can work as crop advisors providing guidance on the issues of crop production, crop protection and natural resource management. Crop advisers combine their knowledge in these disciplines as well as their local experience to provide sound recommendations to their clients so as to make agriculture a viable and profitable economic proposition. Where farming is undertaken on a contract basis, corporates need supervisors and quality checkers to ensure that crops produced meet up with the market requirements.

Other jobs include production and marketing of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, farm machinery and equipment, livestock feed and irrigation, as well as Production, Procurement, Processing, and Marketing of output such as agriculture produce (including crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry, agro forestry, horticulture, dairying) marketing, agro processing, and food processing.

With the entry of agri-retail outlets for providing fresh farm produce to the urban consumer, there is a need for large numbers of people trained in the handling and processing of perishables for the domestic and export market. The growth of the agri-sector is also generating a need for professionals providing a range of other services, such as export and import, rural banking, credit, financing agri projects, insurance, logistics, water management, research and development, and rural energy. In addition, there is a need for experts who will be able to provide technical and market information services to the farming community, and private and public sector organisations involved in the food and agricultural sector. Currently, the e-chaupal programme, village internet kiosks managed by farmers, enables the agricultural community to access ready information on the weather & market prices. It also helps them disseminate knowledge on scientific farm practices & risk management, facilitate the sale of farm inputs and purchase farm produce from the farmers’ doorsteps.

Seeds of success

With the number and range of activities involved in the agri-sector, you can enter with a degree in agriculture, management, retail or computers.

Most universities offer graduate and post-graduate courses in agriculture and its allied fields. Most agricultural institutions offer a choice of several agricultural specializations, such as agricultural economics, agricultural chemistry, horticulture, animal husbandry, agricultural marketing and farm management. Some of the more prominent institutions for the study of agriculture include;

• GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, UP.

• Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar.

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi

• University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

• Gujarat Agriculture University, Anand Dist, Gujarat.

There are also institutes which offer postgraduate programmes in management specially designed to prepare students for careers in management related to agriculture, food, agri-business, rural and allied sectors of the economy. The Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) at Anand, Gujarat and the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University at Hissar offer prgrammes in rural management, while IIMAhmedabad offers Post Graduate Programme in Agribusiness Management (PGP-ABM.

Future scenario

With the increasing commercialisation of agriculture, the major areas where career opportunities will increase in the coming days are: crop production and management, natural resource management, livestock and poultry, fish production, post-harvest agricultural engineering and processing technology. Another huge sector is that of food processing with more than a quarter of India's farm production being wasted due to a lack of cold storage and adequate transportation The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has identified 12 locations for setting up centres for handling agro — perishables to facilitate the export of farm products.

There will also continue to be a requirement for trained professionals in the support services for this sector, such as banking and finance. Nationalized banks and rural banks such as NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) also hire professionals from this field. There are also opening in the non-governmental sectors and with international agencies, and in the areas of agricultural human resource management, and in the development of plant biotechnology and microbial technologies, environmental, land use and water management, and in agribusiness retail and management.

As agriculture begins to wear a corporate look, those who enter this sector can reap a bumper harvest!

The writer is a noted career expert