Agribusiness denotes the collective business activities that are performed from farm to the market. It covers the supply of agricultural inputs, the production and transformation of agricultural products and their distribution to final consumers. It is one of the main generators of employment and income worldwide.
Agribusiness is characterized by raw materials that are mostly perishable, variable in quality and not regularly available. The sector is subject to stringent regulatory controls on consumer safety, product quality and environmental protection. This training is intended to introduce the participants to agricultural production and marketing as means to sustain their livelihoods.

Who should attend?

This one-week course is intended for various actors in the Agriculture Extension (Agricultural extension officers, senior agricultural officials and policy makers) working with communities, in governments, funding agencies, Research organizations and non-government organizations among others for Agriculture support activities and other Development programmes.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, learners will be able to:

• Understand the nature of agribusiness products
• Gain knowledge on operations planning and management in agribusiness
• Gain insight on the macroeconomic forces affecting agribusiness development and their impacts
• Gain skills on of agribusiness development as a source of livelihood
• Gain knowledge on farm income and investment analysis
• Understand means of handling agribusiness products to minimize post-harvest losses
• Gain skills on agricultural marketing
• Gain knowledge on technological skills applied in agriculture

Topics to be covered

Agribusiness Development Planning

• Overview of rural agribusiness development
• Nature of agribusiness products
• Production resources

Agricultural Marketing

• Agricultural marketing concepts
• Farm marketing objectives and strategies
• Target marketing
• Market research
• Managing marketing

Operation Planning and Management

• Production planning and budgeting
• Value-added product processing
• Appropriate post-harvest technology
• Agribusiness contracting
• Agricultural cooperatives, credit and financing
• Farm income and investment analysis

Agribusiness Extension Techniques

• Training needs and contents identification
• Selecting training methods and techniques
• Planning and implementation of extension programs

Macroeconomic Forces Affecting Agribusiness Development and their Impacts to Agribusiness

• Political-Legal forces
• Social-Cultural forces
• Technological and Economic force

Introduction to Development Technologies in Agribusiness

• Data analysis in Agribusiness
• ICT in Agriculture
• GIS and Remote Sensing application in Agriculture
• Monitoring and Evaluation in Agriculture

Methodology

The instructor led trainings are delivered using a blended learning approach and comprises of presentations, guided sessions of practical exercise, web based tutorials and group work. Our facilitators are seasoned industry experts with years of experience, working as professional and trainers in these fields.

All facilitation and course materials will be offered in English. The participants should be reasonably proficient in English.

Accreditation

Upon successful completion of this training, participants will be issued with an Indepth Research Services (IRES) certificate.