Career and scope of B.Sc. (Ag.) in India and Abroad

Parents wonder, why B.Sc.(Agriculture) ? It’s really strange that being a primary source of livelihood for the world population, it remains as the least priority of students choosing it as a career option. B.Sc. (Ag.) is a broad based course with a significant potential. It deals with the fields like Agricultural Food Production, Horticulture, Animal Rearing, Rural Development, Environmental Health etc. Everyone must have noticed one thing during COVID-19 pandemic period that all the sectors had been shut down and none of us rushed to buy gold, land, car or expensive phones but all of us rushed to buy rice, wheat, milk and vegetables to tide over the situation. This indicates the importance of agriculture for our existence.

Keeping in view the significance of applied sciences for proper understanding and development of different areas of agriculture and allied fields, School of Agriculture, GIET University, Gunupur, Rayagada located at a tribal hinterland of Odisha, had introduced a four year undergraduate B.Sc.(Ag.) course in the year 2017. B.Sc.(Ag.) being a professional course, we at School of Agriculture impart quality education giving emphasis on practical field exposure to the students through a large network of departments like Dept. of Agronomy, Horticulture Soil Sc., Plant breeding and genetics, Entomology, Plant Pathology, Agril. Economics, Agril. Engg,., Extension education, forestry,  Agril. Biotechnology, Agril. Meteorology, etc.

The college strives to achieve its mission of developing knowledge, attitude and skill based agricultural professionals capable of undertaking rural development and poverty alleviation through its team of 22 highly competent, well qualified and experienced faculty members.

The College owns a well-managed qualitative farm comprising of nearly 70 acres of land in its near vicinity. Out of which, 13 acres of instructional farm is being monitored by students and guided by their respective faculties. The centre of attraction of the farm consists of Mushroom unit, Farm machinery unit, Azolla unit, Organic plots, Medicinal Plant unit and Field crops such as oil seeds, pulses, millets, maize, tuber crops, green manuring crops. In addition, all types of vegetables and some of the exotic varieties viz. Red Cabbage, Capsicum, Broccoli, Cherry Tomato, Spinach  and Lettuce are grown to give exposure to the budding agri graduates. To draw the attention, Agro forestry intercropped with Pineapple and Turmeric, etc. is also maintained. The college also has a young orchard of 13 acres area consisting of different varieties of mango, guava, citrus, litchi, pomegranate etc. Hi-tech horticultural practices have been adopted in the orchard with an aim of carrying out several research and development activities. An IFS (Integrated Farming System) unit as well as a well-equipped greenhouse are in seeding stage. Around 44 acres of dedicated land is available to give an in-hand practical exposure to the students on cultivation of different varieties of paddy.

The major thrust area of School of Agriculture is to expose the students more practically so that students passing out from this college will have ample job opportunities in the government as well as private sectors.

• Aspired candidates can opt for administrative jobs like IAS, IFS, OAS and OFS by qualifying UPSC & OPSC written examinations.
• They can also be hired as Agriculture Development Officer (ADO), Extension Officer, Agriculture Officer, Range Forest Officer, District Horticulture Officer etc. Employment opportunities are available as state government jobs in various departments like Agriculture, Horticulture, Soil conservation, Seed Production, Seed Certification, Fodder Development, Forest Corporation etc.
• They also have a great scope to be recruited in Nationalized Banks, NABARD and RRB as Agriculture Field Officers (AFO) and Probationary Officers (PO).
• Agri graduates can also be placed in Insurance Companies (Agri. And allied insurance).
• NGOs (National level / State level).
• After Graduation student can opt for marketing as a career in various agriculture input sectors like Fertilizer companies, Pesticide companies, Seed industries etc.
• Aspirants interested for higher studies may go for M.Sc.(Ag.) and take up teaching job in govt. or private colleges after qualifying ICAR- NET.
• Also one can go for Ph.D. to get infiltrated into the Research and Development, Agricultural Research Scientist (ARS) and Research Fellow posts available in government as well as private industries.
• There is a vast scope for M.Sc. (Ag.) aspirants in KVKs to be posted as Subject Matter Specialist (SMS) to disseminate the technical know-hows received from R& D department amongst the farmers.
• Besides the above mentioned opportunities, the most lucrative professione. “Agripreneurship” is the need of the hour. Government of India is encouraging to start business ventures in agriculture sector with lot of schemes, subsidies and incentives with a view to provide financial and moral support at the initial stage to meet out the losses, if any. Why one should go for Agripreneurship? In Agripreneurship, young graduates would be a job giver instead of job seeker. Considering that two-third of the Indian population is employed (either directly or indirectly) in the agriculture sector, of which 70 % are small and marginal farmers who need hand- holdings to increase their production in a cost effective manner. The main job of an agripreneur is to strengthen the economical and societal status of farmers, provide rural employment in his own business, prevent migration of poor farmers by motivating them towards the benefits of farming etc.

Agripreneurship is going to give excellent results at rural level and has the potential to transform the face of rural India from a low profit traditional farming to a profitable one. Considering the above opportunities, it can be concluded that B.Sc. (Agriculture) course has multiple career options locally and globally.