S. Vishnu Sharma
IIM Lucknow Post Graduate Program in Agribusiness Management (PGP-ABM) is designed for individuals with a strong affinity for agro-based enterprises, dedicated to becoming India’s new-age agribusiness leaders.
This two-year, full-time residential program aims to train and nurture agribusiness executives, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs with vision, competence, and the right mindset for developing and growing agribusiness and agro-based firms with a strong international focus, say sources from IIM Lucknow.
Agricultural Economy
With India being a 70% agricultural economy, there is a constant need for well-trained and qualified experts to steer this key industry.
Employing about 60% of the nation’s workforce, agriculture is the most significant source of income for rural India.
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This makes IIM Lucknow’s PGP – ABM crucial for the development and growth of India’s agriculture sector as it directly contributes to increased agricultural production and efficiency, leading to higher profitability for farmers and agribusiness corporations.
Curriculum
The PGP – ABM curriculum’s primary focus is on understanding the interdependence of organizational processes and their managerial implications, assisting students in developing the conceptual and analytical skills needed to make and implement effective management decisions, say sources from IIM Lucknow.
Career opportunities
Speaking about the career opportunities for graduates after the program, Prof. M.K. Awasthi, Chairperson of PGP-ABM at IIM Lucknow, said agribusiness sector is most promising sector in terms of growth opportunities and social transformation catalyzer as this sector has ever growing demand propelled by the rising population and purchasing power of consumer.
This is the only sector where aggregate demand is influenced primarily by the demographic factors and thus keep growing even during the period of economic recession or pandemic, say sources from IIM Lucknow.
Our students are in great demand as within the IIM MBA’s, students who have MBA in (agribusiness management have rare combination of strong management skill and agribusiness domain knowledge, say sources from IIM Lucknow.
These MBAs are in short supply as all IIMs together produce less than 140 such agribusiness specialist MBAs, say sources from IIM Lucknow.
Main objectives of the course at IIM Lucknow
To train the next generation of agribusiness professionals, the main objectives of this program include:
$ Grasping essential business functions
$ Providing critical and analytical abilities for success in complicated, unpredictable, and dynamic business situations
$ Applying business knowledge to a global environment
$ Understanding important functional areas affecting agricultural organizations and promoting good corp
$ Developing skills and competencies for long-term competitive advantage in organizations
Familiarising
This program emphasises on familiarizing students with ground-level operations and agricultural production systems.
After completing their first year, students are required to undergo a two-month mandatory summer training in industrial and business groups, say sources from IIM Lucknow.
The summer training program is designed to expose students to real-world job environments.
Key features
Key features that set this program apart include:
· Case study methodology: To foster an interactive learning environment, the program utilizes lectures, case studies, exercises, seminars, role plays, management games, project work, audio-visual aids, and computer-based learning techniques
· Creating next-gen entrepreneurs: IIM Lucknow’s Business incubation Centre is the wind beneath the wings of many young businesses and entrepreneurs in the field of agribusiness.
Some of these startups are Organic ledger, Utopian, Standarde and Farmers2Family.
· Live projects: The mandatory summer training program equips students with the skills required for the workforce.
Agribusiness graduates also regularly go for a one term training programme in some of the leading management institutions of Europe as part of student exchange programme.
· Batch diversity: The PGP-ABM course attracts students from various disciplines, bringing diverse skills and backgrounds to create a dynamic learning environment.
In a typical batch there are students from BSc (Bio), Agriculture, Veterinary, Animal Husbandry, B-tech Biotechnology, and several other branches of engineering.
Enrolment
Commenced in 2004, this program has enrolled 20 batches of students to date. The program aims to transmit information and skills necessary for managers to succeed in an increasingly dynamic and complicated workplace, say sources from IIM Lucknow. At various stages, it sharpens and develops the student’s understanding.