Course: Agribusiness Management
Course overview:
This course is an introduction to the agribusiness management including a survey of the role and characteristics of agricultural businesses management in our economic system. It is designed to give student a good understanding of what it takes to manage an agricultural business. The main goal of this course is to provide student with an understanding of the basic economic concepts, basic theoretical tools employed by economist in the analysis agricultural price determination and discovery. The basics of supply, demand, markets and their structure will also be reviewed in this course. This course will also cover the traditional topics of price, margins of marketing, derived demand, and trade. Finally, we will examine the roll of strategy used in price setting, how market power gets exploited, and what drives the consumer and how to learn more about them.
The course will provide you with the necessary theoretical and practical background, knowledge and communication and hand on work skills. It will be useful for your future career opportunities as an agronomist, entrepreneur, agribusiness manager, financial manager, adviser, and policymaker.
Student learning outcome:
Each student who successfully completes this course will understand:
- The key concepts in the principles of agribusiness .
- The basic concepts of agribusiness management.
- How the discipline of agribusiness started as well as the relationship between management and the other disciplines of agribusiness.
- how and when a problem is considered as an agribusiness problem
- How to plan, make decision, organize, lead and control in Agribusiness .
Student's obligation:
Students are expected to attend all lectures during the semester.
- They will be assumed to be aware of all information and notices presented in the lectures, and complete all assessments including (Exams, practical works, assignments, reports, essays, seminar and presentation).
- These activities or exercises serve to reinforce student comprehension of the subject matter or skill through active participation (Group projects, Seminar discussion and Presentation) and practice immediately following a technique-based demonstration.
References:
Book: Agribusiness Management
- Freddie Barnard, Jay Akridge, Frank Dooley and John Foltz (2012 ). Agribusiness Management (4th Ed.). Routledge, NY
Book: Agribusiness: Principles of Management
- David D. Van Fleet, Ella W. Van Fleet, and George J. Seperich (2014 ). Agribusiness: Principles of Management. Delmar, Cengage Learning, USA, NY.
Course outline:
1st week:
Introduction to course content and expectations
Scope, functions, and tasks
Introduction to Agribusiness
Terminology (Vocabularies)
History and Definition
2nd week:
Concept of Agribusiness
Agribusiness system and subsystems
3rd week:
Managing the Agribusiness
Management: Definition and concepts
Principles of Management
Functions of Management
Origins of Management theory
4th week:
The Schools of Management
The Classical School
Scientific management
Administrative management
The Behavioural School (Hawthorne studies)
The Behavioural School
Theory X and Y
The Quantitative School
Management science
Operations management
Management information systems
CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT THEORY
System theory – Contingency Approach - Total Quality Management (TQM) - High-involvement management
5th&6th Week:
The Challenges of Managers
Integrative Framework of Management
Managerial Roles
THE ENVIRONMENT OF AGRIBUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Organizational Environments
The Competitive Environment
The Global Environment
7th Week:
Planning and Decision-Making in Agribusiness
Basic Managerial planning
Planning (Definition, Types of Goal, Types of planning)
Strategic planning
Tactical planning
Contingency planning
Levels of planning
The planning process
Strategies and Strategic Planning
Planning Tools and Techniques
Managerial Problem Solving and Decision Making