Agriculture Engineering is a technologically sophisticated and ever
expanding field that offers bright career prospects to agricultural graduates.
Agriculture Engineers can built up a career in any country around the
world and in a variety of sectors, no matter whether it is private or
public. Their major task is to improve farming techniques and agricultural
products and for that they combine engineering and biological science
principles so that, farming is made easier, efficient and more profitable.
Some of the specialisation in the field agricultural engineering include
:
Agricultural equipment designing
Conservation of soil and water
Crop production
Dairy Management
Bio-renewable products
Processing of agricultural products etc.
Water resource management, forestry, mining and rehabilitation, urban
and rural development, machine development, product planning, crop storage
and processing etc. are some of the work areas of agricultural engineers.
Lucrative careers prospects are available for qualified agricultural engineers
in fields like :
Government and Public sector organizations
Agribusiness firms
Food processing and retail industry
Research organizations and laboratories.
Banks and Financial corporations
Sales and Management
Central and state government organisation and private firms recruit agricultural
engineers as agricultural officers for the development of agriculture
in a district. In farm equipment manufacturing industry, they design,
develop and manage various types of agricultural related equipments. Planning
and construction of warehouses or godowns for the storage of food grains
and greenhouses or glass houses for the intensive cultivation of horticultural
crops; designing and development of food processing machinery are some
of the duties perform by the agricultural engineers in food processing
industry.
Those interested in research activities can become an agricultural research
scientists by joining in research organisations like Indian Agricultural
Research Institute (IARI), Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR)
etc. Banks, finance and insurance companies hire agricultural graduates
and in these organisations, they can work as field officers, rural development
officers and agricultural and probationary officers.
Teaching is another option for those who have a good academic record
and they can start as assistant/associate professors in agricultural universities
and institutes. One can venture into business by setting up farms, production
and marketing of food grains and other farming activities. Agricultural
engineers can provide consultancy services to agricultural workers and
farming and agro industries. They could also work for irrigation and drainage
projects, canal irrigation programmes, land reclamation and soil conservation
projects. Agricultural engineers can work with NGO's in rural areas as
part of their rural development programme.
