Features of Agribusiness

How agribusiness differs from other business

• There are variations in the kinds of

business in agribusiness sector : basic

producers, wholesalers, transporters,

processors, manufacturers storage firms,

packagers, food chains, retailers etc.,

• Large number of agribusinesses : Large

number of different businesses are

evolved to handle the routes from the

producer to retailers.

• Agribusinesses are built around several

millions of farm producers.

• No other business is built principally

around the basic producer of its raw

product as agribusiness and these

businesses deal with farmers directly or

indirectly.

• Agribusinesses vary in their sizes right

from one person or one family organisation

to large giants like Reliance fresh, PepsiCo

, Amul and Heritage etc.,

• Agribusiness firms are small and compete

in a relatively free market in which there

are many sellers and many buyers and

these firms do not allow monopoly like

enterprises in the industry.

• Product differentiation is common because

of the brand and composition of the

products.

• Agribusiness are traditional oriented and are more conservative , when compared to other businesses.

• Most of the agribusiness are community oriented in the sense most of them are located in small towns and rural areas where relationships are important and associations are long term .

• People know each other’s families for a several generations.

• Agribusinesses are highly seasonal in their

nature due to the fact that they depend on

farm production.

• These businesses are affected by vagaries

(unpredictable change) of nature.

• Natural calamities like drought, floods,

insects and pests and diseases are

constant threats to agribusiness.

• Agribusiness is vertically structured.

• The Government programmes and policies

have direct impact on agribusiness.

Each of these features of the

agribusiness world requires the

agribusiness managers use the

principles of management in a very

special way.

Therefore Agribusiness is very unique and requires unique abilities and skills to its managers.