Introducing Agribusiness Management!

My blog has a lot of tracking and one thing I thank God for the presence of my wide flat nose that can tell of a smell yards away. I am already a graduate in Agribusiness Management but I still find it hard to get a placement in an agribusiness company and I have people asking me what I really have in papers. Agriculture or B Com? Not that am so serious with getting a real job (this is a story for another day) I even complimented the degree strength by boggling my mind with calculations courtesy of Kasneb. Most of my friends have resulted to other careers but I still hold on to this love. So in a realm am just trying to help others realize what Agribusiness entails.

By definition, agribusiness should constitute the food and fibers composition in line with the products or services of retailing, wholesaling and processing in the farms. But. In less developed countries like Kenya, the definition would take the form of food agro industries inclusive of the processing and distribution of both inputs and outputs. The main distinction with agriculture could be with anything that is within the “farm gate” while in agribusiness all products and services before and after farm gate exclusive of final distribution of the same to consumers. The chart below demonstrates 

So in a nutshell agribusiness consists of three components namely:

• §  An agricultural sector
• §  A production sector
• §  A processing-manufacturing sector.

Combining these components with Drucker’s definition of management of “management is a multi-purpose organ that manages a business, manages manager and manages worker and work” gives rise to the phrase Agribusiness Management.

So what is its scope?

i) Industry sector as either

§  extractive (fishing, forestry, picking of fruits)

§  Genetics (deals with breeding of plants, chicken, seeds, goats and cattle. Also issues to deal with climate change, environmental factors and human skills come in handy.

§  Manufacturing: converting the raw materials into finished goods. E.g  cotton spinning

ii) Commerce sector

Takes these produced goods from production to consumption with the help of activities like grading, storing, packaging, transportation, insurance among others.

iii) Management sector

Through responsibility and performance by providing direction of the firm towards achievement of its goal, keeping farm efficiency at a manageable level, combating competition, encouraging innovation and constituting a good relationship base with the other segments in the society.

So what are the expected career opportunities in agribusiness management?

As per the definition above, an agribusiness pursuant ought to be able to find or create opportunities internationally and nationally as sales representatives in chemicals, seed and fertilizer companies, food companies, and agricultural experts among others. So go ahead, you agribusiness manager, to expand your frontiers.