Morarka Foundation has played a very important role in last 20 Years in this arena. Following the philosophy of engaging the trained professional human resource, it has invested great deal of time and efforts to understand the Human Resource development in Agriculture to Agribusiness transformation.

It has launched two major initiatives in this area by way of collaborations with leading Agriculture University and a Deemed University at Post Graduate Level and Post Higher Secondary - Certificate level courses.

Agriculture to Agribusiness- Emerging Trends

•  Increasing demand for organized supply of organic/quality food both in India as well as Abroad. Annual market growth of around 15-25 percent per year for Agribusinesses is being observed.
•  Competitive advantages for many primary production activities in agriculture. Rain-fed farming, tropical fruits and vegetables, livestock, animal husbandry, aquaculture, wild craft, etc. are produced through real low cost production methods.
•  Private sector is willing to enter into agri-businesses at all levels of operations. Changing consumer demand and retail revolution have opened the doors for investments by private sector in agri-agribusinesses like Reliance, Bharati, Pantaloon, Spencers, Metro etc.

Agriculture to Agribusiness - Key issues.

•  Policy issues: From absolute control and management of agriculture by Government, today it is being opened to public-private partnerships.
•  Production technology issues: From input/s oriented technology development for increasing production, today practice based value addition is being promoted.
•  Quality and certification issues: Demands from consumer/s both in India & Internationally for better quality has forced Government/s to establish regulatory mechanisms for quality certification.
•  Logistics and supply chain issues: Modern retail formats requires efficient and dedicated supply chain management facilities.
•  Human resource issues: Lack of appropriately trained human resource is today considered as the biggest constraint in conversion of agriculture to agri-business.

Agriculture to Agri-business - HR Concerns

•  Agriculture to agri-business potential has neither been recognized by the academic/s nor is being promoted as a career making opportunity among practitioners.
•  Region-location specific agri-business opportunities need to be identified and accordingly suitable human resource training programs should have been launched.
•  Learning processes for human resource to be engaged in agri-business enterprises should be designed to suit the candidates as per the job requirements.
•  The focus to upgrade the skills of conventional practitioners of agriculture into agri-business human resource will provide the missing links.

Agriculture Education - Status

•  Education is based on scientific developments carried out during 1950s to till date. Mostly candidates are trained in input based technologies and extension works.
•  Focus on external inputs for increasing productivity. The skills for enabling value addition in agriculture are not imparted.
•  Focus on government jobs (extension and research). Managerial skills are not included in the curriculum/s.
•  Value addition and supply chain management is not covered in syllabus. Even trained candidates do not learn the skills to manage agri-business enterprises.
.  For very long candidates joining these courses have mainly been attracted because of government jobs with total exclusion of practitioners wanting to create their own agri-business enterprises.


Agriculture to Agri-business - HR Need Assessment

S. No	HR Skill Levels	Export House	Processing Unit	Aggregator
1.	Top Management Positions	For very long mostly managed by the owner/s having previous industry work experiences or family background. But now new generation of professionals are coming from diverse fields to become entrepreneurs in Agri Business space.
2.	Senoir Management Positions	Mostly senior managers with qualifications and experiences in marketing, finance, logistics and distribution management are engaged in agri-businesses. Recently demand is increasing for professionals having experience/knowledge in supply chain management.
3.	Middle Management Positions	Mostly managers with hands-on experiences in respective functional areas are engaged by the agri-business enterprises.
4.	Junior Management	Professionally qualified fresh graduates and post graduates in management are recruited	Graduates and post graduates with science background are recruited	Persons having some relevant experiences are employed.
5.	Senior Supervisory Management	Any person seeking a job is generally recruited and trained on the job.
6.	Junior Supervisory Management	Only temporary and stop-gap human resource is engaged on as and when required basis
7.	Entry Level Positions	Candidates with some educational background and even without any relevant skills are engaged

Agriculture to Agri-business - HR Skill Development Requirements

S. No	HR Skill Levels	Small Enterprises	Medium Enterprises	Large Corporation
1.	Top Management	Every year about 100,000 small-medium entrepreneurial units are expected to come into existence. They all need appropriate training and skill Development support through formal and informal courses.	Presently employed Senior Management Staff (about 1000 persons every year) needs executive Development programs.
2.	Senior Management
3.	Middle Management		Presently employed and to be employed management staff (about 5000 persons every year) would require both structured classroom as well as distance learning programs.
4.	Junior Management
5.	Senior Supervisory Management	3-6 months full time courses for 20,000 higher secondary plus candidates every year	6-12 months full time courses for 50,000 higher secondary plus candidates every year
6.	Junior Supervisory Management	6-12 months full time courses for 100,000 secondary plus candidates every year.
7.	Entry Level Positions	3-6 months full time courses for 100,000 candidates from farming background (irrespective of their education qualifications) every year.

It has launched many Courses as follows:

1.  Beginner's Course in Organic Agriculture with NPC, New Delhi
2.  PGDOAM Professional Human Resource for Agribusinesses
3.  Certificate Course in Organic Agriculture
4.  Training Program as AC & ABC Scheme Of GOI (Manage)