Programme

PGP-FABM

Term

VI

Academic Year

2021-22

Course title

Agribusiness Leadership

Area

Centre for Management in Agriculture

Credits

0.50

Instructor(s)

Prof. Anil Gupta (VF)

Course Description & Objectives

Indian agriculture has witnessed several transformative changes in the last few decades. Never before, had so many young people wanted to explore opportunities in agriculture sector as has been the case in the last decade. And yet, retaining youth in agriculture sector is posing new challenges. Traditional successes in milk through cooperative movement, poultry through private sector, paddy cultivation through hybrid rice by public and private sector, wheat public sector, fishery etc., are well known. But the principles of leadership emerging from those successes are yet to be thoroughly analysed and learnt from. New growth opportunities in grape wine, camel and sheep milk, green house cultivation of vegetables, flower, mushroom and medicinal plants are based on bold experiments and business models. Organic tea, coffee, spices and cotton for green fabrics dyed with colours extracted from flower offerings at temples are craving out niche space in consumer mind not just with in the country but globally. Many new start up introduced juices, milk products and probiotics in new formats to attract young people towards heathy consumption styles. This course will expose students to leadership model emerging in agri-business sector mainly in India but also globally. The leaders who build business on strong ethical foundations have created models of continuous improvement and innovation as in the case of Amul model in milk. Distributed leadership has taken deep roots in such cases. While strong private entrepreneurial model has dominated wine, poultry, processed foods, etc. Nascent entrepreneurial sprouts in organic cotton, herbal dyes based textile, organic tea/coffee/spices etc., show a mix of different leadership models. It is hoped that by interacting with some of the leaders who led transformative change at different scales, students will get emboldened to not just learn but lead.

Pedagogy

Interactions with leaders from private, cooperative, producers’ company sector, besides agri-business innovators will be facilitated through four workshops. In each case students will present short critiques of the model in question and present the potential they see for Indian leadership globally in that sector, if not achieved so far. The open innovation lessons that MNCs operating in agricultural sector are learning from Indian markets will also be discussed to explore ways of fuelling hunger for success, not so evident always.