Agriculture is undergoing a hugetransformation. In the past, agriculture was seen as a subsistence activity offarmers involving crop and livestock production. For centuries agriculture wasthe same as farming, and most people lived on farms or nearby and were largelyself-sufficient.
This is, however, changing substantially in the recent years. Today,agriculture is rapidly turning into a technology and market oriented “industry”which extends from agricultural production, to sophisticated agriscience, andagribusiness. It now connects strongly to the national and global economy. Thepioneers of the field of agribusiness at the Harvard Business School, Davis andGoldberg (1957) defined agribusiness as the sum total of all operationsinvolved in the manufacture and distribution of farm supplies; productionoperations on the farm; and the storage, processing, and distribution of theresulting farm commodities and items. Anotherdefinition describes it as consisting of profit-motivated enterprises involvedin providing agricultural supplies and/or in the processing, marketing,transport, and distribution of agricultural materials and consumer products.
Agribusinessprovides inputs to the production agriculturist (farmer), and the productionagricultural produce food, fiber and by products. Input agribusinesses providefarmers with supplies and equipment needed to produce and protect their crops.Many provide services to such as credit, insurance and information. The outputis taken by output agribusiness firms that process, market, and distribute theagricultural products (see Figure 1).
Agribusinesstraders and commodity organisations are engaged in buyingand selling as well ascoordination, promotion, advertising, and even lobbying for agricultural products.Many are engaged in food marketing and services. Research, education andextension help improve the performance of agriculture and agribusinesses.Millions of people are employed in agribusinesses, and people throughout theworld depend on agribusinesses, some for production needs and others for foodand non-food requirements.
The transformation ofagribusiness in developing countries appears to be driven by significantconstraints, demands, and shifts that occur in the economy as development proceeds.An effort is made here to identify some of the important shifts and constraintsthat emerge, and the impact they generate and will continue to have onagriculture and agribusiness development. This is important not only tounderstand what the origins and causes of agribusiness growth are, but also thelikely direction of future changes (Gandhi, 2014).The majordrivers can be identified as:• Scarcity of Land and the Needto Improve Productivities • Markets, Urbanisation andIncreasing Commercialisation of Agriculture • Need for Change in Scale andReorganisation of Production and Marketing • Economic Liberalisation,Reducing Government Involvement, Income Growth, WTO and Trade • Changing Food ConsumptionPattern and Demand for Quality and Convenience • Development of the RuralEconomy, Infrastructure, Rural-Urban Migration, and Globalisation • Information and CommunicationTechnology Revolution.
Discussion Thispaper aims to let the people that had read/ listen during the discussion thathad been done by the group 1 about the topic Growth and Development ofAgribusiness to understand where it started and how agribusiness come to engagewith agriculture. Figureone which shows the Over view of the Agribusiness system, illustrates howagriculture is being merge with agribusiness. It is merging in a way that theAgribusiness is the one that helps to provide the Agriculturist (farmers) withthe materials, equipment’s and other stuff needed in farming activities. AlsoAgribusiness helps the farmers to disseminate/ sell their products in a waythat it would be beneficial to the farmers and to the consumers buying theirproducts. The Line of Gandhi that says: “This isimportant not only to understand what the origins and causes of agribusinessgrowth are, but also the likely direction of future changes”.
This veryimportant because of if we only thinks about today then we cannot predict norforecast what will happen to the future demand and whether if we are able tocope up to the supply and demand gap by the logarithmic increasing population.The inflation of price must be studied also in order to balance the economy andfor the sake of the people not only for their want but also for their dailyliving. REFERENCES Davis, John H. and Ray A.Goldberg (1957), A Concept of Agribusiness,Harvard University. Retrived from: https://ageconsearch.
umn.edu/bitstream/206364/2/G andhi69_1.pdfGandhi, Vasant P.
(2014), Growthand Transformation of theAgribusiness Sector: Drivers, Models and Challenges.Retrieved from: https://ageconsearch. umn.edu/bitstream/206364/2/Gandhi69_1.pdf
