Our country with a billion plus population today faces acute issues such as hunger and malnutrition, has no more land to be brought under cultivation and also faces acute shortage of water. With growing industries and increasing urbanisation, several other challenges are ahead of us. In short, we have to produce more per hectare of land and per liter of water.
In order to address these challenges, one of the key success factors would be to adapt enhanced application of modern day science, technologies and techniques. Agriculture biotechnology holds the potential to increase food production, reduce the use of synthetic chemical pesticides, and actually make food safer and healthier. No wonder, the sector has opened up immense career opportunities for professionals who have keen interest in this Science.
With an inherent genetic potential to increase yields, seed plays a pivotal role. Worldwide the seed industry is a research driven industry. According to a recent research report ‘India Seed Industry outlook to FY 2018’ by Ken Research, Indian seed industry with total revenue of INR 110,447 million in FY 2013, CAGR of 18.8 per cent over the last seven years is pegged at sixth position in the world. The country has also witnessed remarkable increase in volume (3,536.2 thousand tonnes in FY 2012 as compared to 1,481.8 thousand tonnes in FY 2007) and quality of seeds, thanks to the painstaking research conducted by biotechnology professionals across the country. Biotechnology professionals in the field of Agriculture utilise unique set of tools, which, when integrated with other technologies, can be used for the sustainable development of the sector and the food industry.
A research mindset, programme management capabilities and team work are the specific or unique manpower skills required for agriculture biotechnology sector. In today’s era of globalisation, in addition to their scientific expertise the professionals in the field of agriculture biotechnology also need to possess strong managerial qualities.
The seed industry in India has grown over the years hugely in terms of volume as well as performance. The professional grooming and on-job training provided by both the public and private sector organisations truly complies with the international standards.
Due to its ever-evolving nature, the field of agriculture biotechnology holds tremendous potential to offer numerous career options. The industry not just attracts the professionals from research and development background but also presents multifold opportunities to experts from related areas such as horticulture, floriculture, dairy sciences, poultry farming, and fishery. Food processing industry or post-harvest technology domains also hold great potential for biotechnology professionals from the field of agriculture.
The science is changing by leaps and bounds with every passing day. Scientists have successfully overcome challenges to productivity e.g. soil imbalance, crop disease, genetic breeding by utilising modern techniques. Hence, the scope of agriculture biotechnology today has vastly extended to other numerous areas such as molecular biology, plant transformation, tissue cultures, biochemistry, plant genetics, pathology, entomology to name a few.
Be it for fresh candidates or for those with prior industry experience, the learning opportunities coupled with cutting-edge technology throws open plenty of growth avenues to rise up the career ladder. Organisations such as Mahyco are known for their ‘Action learning Programme’, boundary-less structure and excellent interface that facilitates unique exchange between industry and academia provides vast scope for employees to enable themselves for future roles. Apart from Research and Development, Mahyco also offers careers in the areas of sales, product management and supply-chain.
This vast scope as a lucrative career opportunity in the field of agriculture biotechnology also comes with a responsibility to cause minimal harm to mother earth and protect the biodiversity.
The leaning is towards high energy professionals who have interest in agribusiness and rural markets. Agriculture biotechnology provides prospective career options for individuals who have passion to contribute to the society through Science.
(The author is chief human resource officer at Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company limited).