If you thought only consulting and finance are hot in campus placements, think again. All 24 students of the postgraduate diploma in agriculture management at the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) have found jobs in top companies in a range of sectors, with more than one offer for some of them.
The NAARM's first batch of students found placements in companies in retail, marketing, seeds, market research, export, banking and rural development sectors. Among the companies which recruited were Aditya Birla group, Shriram Bioseeds, Nuziveedu Seeds, Q&Q Research Insight, NCDEX Spot, DevGen, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Sumitomo Chemicals and Bayer Biosciences.
N H Rao, director, NAARM, said, "Indian agriculture is increasingly shifting from 'agriculture' to 'agribusiness', and there is a great need for trained professionals for food processing, packaging and quality control to compete in a global scenario."
The salary package offered to the placed students is in the range of Rs 3.5 - 5.5 lakh per year. The Rajendranagar-based institute started the two-year full time PGDM (Agriculture) in 2009 with 24 students.
New course
Seeing great demand for trained human resources in technology management in the agriculture sector, NAARM in collaboration with the University of Hyderabad started a one-year distance education course, called PG diploma in technology management in agriculture this year. So far, 127 students have taken admission in the course, according to an institute release.