In this role, one is expected to research and get primary & secondary data to help design a research report. Research reports can focus on various aspects in the agricultural value chain like input sales, consumer behavior, crop productivity, soil analysis, water availability among others.
You can expect specific questions around the positioning of the company in the value chain and product/service categories in which they operate. The questions suggested below provide can serve as a good preparatory questions set for a sales roles across the value chain:
- What is the best approach to making crop choice & crop variety decisions?
- What are the Interesting developments and opportunities to look for in Agri-finance?
- What sorting and grading innovations are finding adoption for food commodities?
- What cold chain innovations are finding adoption for fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, milk and meat?
- Who are the critical players (stakeholders) in linear food & agribusiness value chains?
- How are incentives distributed for different stakeholders in a food distribution system?
- Which current industry trend/development is attracting your interest? Why?
- Which regions & product categories are receiving investments with the food & agribusiness?
- How can digital technologies support smallholders in improving the accessing, choosing and affording of right inputs?
- How can digital technologies support both buyers and sellers in marketing and sales management?
- What are the benefits of temperature control in food products while in transit?
- What are the different functions of packaging?
- What is the need for an accounting for an individual / a company?
- What are the fundamentals and principles beneath the standard accounting practices that are followed by companies?
- What is the difference between a business model and a business plan?
If you are comfortable in answering and having a good discussion on the above questions we wish you a lot of success. If you would like to have preparation support we recommend you the following digital school courses:)
- Agriculture Basics (Helpful for all business analyst roles for understanding critical factors of production)
- Introduction to Agri Finance (can be helpful to understand the status of smallholder value chain and financing)
- Cashflow financing in Agribusiness (Can be helpful to understand the relevance of data to gain better insights using cashflow tool)
- Introduction to Alternative foods (Can be helpful for analyst roles in alternative foods to gain better understanding)
- Basics of precision agriculture (Can be helpful for analyst roles to gain better understanding on precision agriculture)
- Digital innovations in Agricultural extension (can be helpful to understand the value of digital technologies to address the challenges in agricultural value chain)
- Introduction to packaging and transportation (Can be more relevant for analyst roles to understand the role of food packaging and transportation better)
- Food & Agribusiness industry trends and developments (Can be helpful for analysts to understand the consumer behavior and produce better insights on food value chain)
- Agriculture Business models (can be more helpful for analyst roles to prepare better frameworks to get to right inferences and suggest better strategy)
- Introduction to digital distribution and logistics (can be more relevant for analyst roles dealing with food safety and traceability)