3GE Collection on Agriculture: Agribusiness Management

Since 1980th the substantial changes have occurred in the agricultural sector in most of developed countries. Today the business has become very competitive and complex. This is mainly due to changing taste and fashion of the consumers on the one hand, and introduction of substitute and cheaper and better competitive goods, on the other. The old dictum “produce and sells has changed overtime into “produce only what customers want”. Agriculture has progressed in to agribusiness and has become a massive and complex system that spreads for beyond the farm to include all those who are involved in bringing food and fiber to consumers. Agribusiness include not only those that farm the land but also the people and firms that provide the inputs such as seed, chemicals, credit etc.; process the output such as milk, grain, meat etc.; manufacture the food products for instance ice cream, bread, breakfast cereals etc.; and transport and sell the food products to consumers. In fact, knowing what customers want in never simple. However, a farmer operator/farmer manager has to give proper thought to this consideration in order to make his business a successful one. Massive structural changes are presently being observed within the agricultural sector across most developed countries. Recent agriculture has become a part of the considerably wide-ranging complex that has determined not only the conditions of its success in selling products of the future food markets but the nature and dimensions of the producer agriculture in the concrete area as well. The existence of concentrated markets creates the incentive and the capacity for such firms to engage in conduct aimed at exploiting those participants with limited options and to entrench existing market power against the threat of deconcentrating and effective competition. The position of agricultural enterprises has been changing from relatively independent farms to one of components more tightly aligned across the food (and nonfood) production and distribution chains.

This book details the fundamentals and applications of agribusiness and shows how products go from their source to the consumer, highlighting the steps in this process. It deals with the key issues of contemporary food economy development as a system and its economic implication in regard to changing position of agricultural enterprises.

During the same period technological advance were being made in food preservation method. Up until this time the perishable nature of most agriculture commodities meant that they were available only at harvest. Advance in food processing have made it possible to get those commodities all throughout the year. Today even most farm families use purchased food and fiber products rather than doing the processing themselves. The farms that meet the consumers demand for greater processing and convenience also constitute a major part of agribusiness and are referred to as the processing manufacturing sector.

The book clearly explains how past financial information of the business can be used to identify and assess alternative strategies that will aid management in making decisions that meet business and personal objectives. This book aims to provide students and adult learners with an essential understanding of what it takes to be a successful agribusiness manager in today’s rapidly changing business environment.