Future Leaders in Agribusiness Management get Grass Root Experience

Aug. 21, 2012 - PRLog -- Field visits to the rural area, is an integral and unique feature of the Post Graduate Programme in Agri Business Management of IIM Lucknow. It helps in enhancing practical learning of the students through field exposure. Under this field visit programme, ABM students spend a week’s time with the farming community for whom they will be working in their coming future. The idea is to generate awareness, propose capacity building of the farmers and document case studies apart from data generation and research. The complete exercise is divided in two modules – village study where the students are required to study the whole village through participatory research techniques, and thematic study where the students undertake pre-designed study in agribusiness related issues.

A team of 18 second year ABM students from IIM Lucknow visited rural areas around Lucknow to understand the distribution and usage of agricultural inputs including fertilizers, pesticides and seeds. During the day long trip, students interacted with Agri products sales managers, distributors, retailers and farmers. This helped students to understand the different facets of distribution such as inventory management, sales and trade promotions, margins and channel conflicts and the challenges faced by farmers in purchasing and using agri-inputs.

The students find the visits as an eye opener and many of the popular myths are broken. Mayank Khulbe, a 2nd year Agri-Business Management (ABM) student, says that “While farmers may be price conscious when purchasing products such as mobile sim cards, where they frequently change the operator based on the best deal available, they are ready to pay higher prices for quality agri-inputs, as these inputs directly affect their source of livelihood. It is a myth that all products have to be priced low for the rural market”.

The field visits also serve as the first hand experience of the practical application of the theoretical concepts. Anish Agarwal, another 2nd year ABM student, says that “We had learnt about the important role that packaging colour plays in rural sales. We saw this being practiced by a brand which specifically sold its neem-coated urea in yellow sacks, which influenced farmers to ask for the yellow pack urea”.

Next month, students will be visiting a rural area for one week where they will conduct a research project. Prof. Jabir Ali of the Centre for Food and Agribusiness at IIM Lucknow, who will coordinate this rural visit says, “Field visits are an integral component of our ABM curriculum. Students undertake live field projects in villages where they understand the ground realities, agricultural production system, local resources and constraints related to income and livelihood of the farming community”.

IIM Lucknow believes in giving its student the right exposure whether in the corporate world or the rural sector. Understanding the rural sector is especially relevant now, with rural markets slated to be the battleground where companies would vie for market leadership.