» Agribusiness Management

The term agribusiness represents the three-part system made up of

• The agricultural input sector
• The production sector and
• The processing-manufacturing sector.

To capture the full meaning of the term “agribusiness” it is important to visualize these three sectors as interrelated parts of a system in which the success of each part depends on the proper functioning of the other two parts.

Agribusiness management therefore, encompasses various components of the economy, namely - agricultural producers, businesses that provide supplies and services to the producers (including cooperatives), businesses that add value to agricultural products and those that facilitate the marketing of agricultural products to an ever-growing marketplace.

Indian agriculture scenario is blessed with long growing-season, diverse soil and climatic conditions comprising several agro-ecological regions which are conducive to grow a variety of horticulture crops, through technological intervention. But there are huge post-harvest and handling losses. As such, abundant investment opportunities are there in the expanding domestic market and export arena, that country's share in the world trade of processed foods is still less than one percent. Rapid urbanization, increased literacy and rising per capita income, have all caused rapid growth and changes in demand patterns, leading to new opportunities for exploiting the large latent market. An increasing acceptance of new products with market development efforts is seen as a result of such interventions. Besides very good investment opportunities too exist in many areas of food processing industries, the important ones being: fruit & vegetable processing, meat, fish & poultry processing, grains, packaged, convenience food and drinks, milk products etc. Big business houses which have entered the sector with an eye on global markets have indicated that contract as well as corporate farming may get them timely, consistent and adequate supply of produce of international quality, catering to the global needs.

The ample scope of investment opportunities has given rise to requirement of technical expertise in the sector leading to opportunities shall for the technical know-how providers and value advisory services.