India’s economic progress continues to be predicated to an extent by growth in the agriculture sector. Even now, agriculture sector supports more than 50% of the population, supporting more than half a billion people providing employment to 52 per cent of the workforce.

With the stated objective to supplement agriculture sector knowledge with skills to enhance business effectiveness, XLRI, the premier private B School in India, has joined hands with iKisan, an Agri Portal promoted by the Nagarjuna Group, to offer the Certificate Programme in Agri-Business Management.

This unique six-month, online, self-learning programme is designed for both practicing executives and fresh graduates wanting to join this industry to help them prepare for an exciting sales and marketing career within the dynamic and evolving agri-business sector.

“Indian agriculture sector is at the cross-roads. The agricultural sector has contributed significantly to make India self-sufficient in food grains. However, in recent years the reduction in the yields of major crops and the increased soil degradation as a consequence of irresponsible pesticide usage has raised many questions on the long-term sustainability of agriculture sector. While the agricultural sector continues to be a pillar of the Indian economy, the sustainability dimension has to be addressed in line with the environmental policies advocated by UN and government bodies. Thus, it is imperative that agri-business companies have to take into account these conflicting objectives while designing their marketing programmes”, commented Dr. P. Venugopal, Professor –Marketing and program Co-ordinator of the Certificate Programme in Agri-Business Management.

“XLRI, in association with IKisan has launched this programme for working professionals and students to align their thinking to the new objectives of Agri-Business Management. So far 3 batches have graduated from this programme and the participants have found the programme, designed by faculty drawn from the academia and industry, to be very useful”, he added.

The programme offers one week induction at XLRI, Jamshedpur; 10 courses covering Management & Technical Skills that requires about 60 hours of effort from the students on each course; and an independent project wherein a student works on an agri-business sector topic.