Career In Horticulture
Got a green thumb? Then pursue a career in the
blooming horticulture industry and watch your bank balance flourish, says Mona
Shah
Horticulture is an intensive form of agriculture that involves floriculture (flowers), landscape horticulture or arboriculture (trees, shrubs and vines) and promology (fruits). Today, horticulture is about more than just planting and maintaining trees. It involves supervising a culturally diverse work force, finding new ways of pest management and dealing with the safe and legal use of pesticides.
Horticulture involves growing, handling, marketing and managing landscape plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables and also entails various aspects of biology, chemistry, ecology, engineering, communications and business and horticulturalists must deal with mass scale multiplication of numerous species of plants for commercial purposes. The field not only encompasses the cultivation of plants, vegetables, flowers, fruits, herbs, shrubs, bushes, ornamental trees and landscaping for gardens, maintaining nurseries, green houses, gardens, orchards and plantations but also includes floriculture or cultivation of flowers. “In this era of wide ranging options (including entrepreneurship), horticulture is a field that holds ample scope. Whether you want to be a full-time or part-time horticulturist, whether you have your own piece of land or not, you can take up this line and make a decent living out of it,” says landscape designer Leena Lobo.
Job profile
“As a horticulturist, your responsibility involves increasing food safety, improving health benefits from fruits and vegetables, developing ecologically sound landscapes and gardening techniques and improving aesthetics of the urban environment,” informs horticulturist Mala Vijaykar.
Professional horticulturists can find jobs in areas such as production, landscape design, installation and maintenance, marketing, research, pest management, industries serving growers of horticultural crops, inspection, communication etc. Job profiles in the above can be classified as;
* Production: You can operate your own business or manage a greenhouse, landscaping service, orchard, vegetable farm, flower or plant shop, nursery, garden centre or processing firm.
* Landscape design, installation and maintenance: As a horticulturist, you can design planting plans with trees, shrubs, ground covers, herbaceous ornaments and turf grass.
* Marketing: You can engage in the wholesale or retail sale of seeds, gardening supplies, cut flowers, fresh or processed fruits and vegetables, house plants, floral arrangements or nursery stock. You can also become a buyer of these items for chain stores, government or private institutions or take up wholesale distribution.
* Research: You can become a scientist and seek ways to improve the yield and quality of fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants, and to develop methods for handling, storing and marketing them. You can also specialise in plant breeding, plant nutrition, plant growth regulation with chemicals or other fascinating areas of plant research.
* Pest management: You can be trained to work with state and central regulatory agencies, agricultural suppliers, processing corporations, large farm organisations or become an agricultural agent.
* Industries serving growers of horticultural crops: As a trained horticulturist, you can find a job in seed firms, manufacturing of fertilisers, pesticide materials, landscape or farm equipment, and canning and freezing companies.
* Inspection: You can find employment in government or private agencies as an inspector of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables. It then becomes your responsibility to ensure high levels of quality and uniformity in the production industry.
* Communication or spreading awareness: Writing for gardening or agricultural magazines, newspapers, television and radio can be a rewarding field for men and women trained in horticulture.
Continued....
Horticulture is an intensive form of agriculture that involves floriculture (flowers), landscape horticulture or arboriculture (trees, shrubs and vines) and promology (fruits). Today, horticulture is about more than just planting and maintaining trees. It involves supervising a culturally diverse work force, finding new ways of pest management and dealing with the safe and legal use of pesticides.
Horticulture involves growing, handling, marketing and managing landscape plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables and also entails various aspects of biology, chemistry, ecology, engineering, communications and business and horticulturalists must deal with mass scale multiplication of numerous species of plants for commercial purposes. The field not only encompasses the cultivation of plants, vegetables, flowers, fruits, herbs, shrubs, bushes, ornamental trees and landscaping for gardens, maintaining nurseries, green houses, gardens, orchards and plantations but also includes floriculture or cultivation of flowers. “In this era of wide ranging options (including entrepreneurship), horticulture is a field that holds ample scope. Whether you want to be a full-time or part-time horticulturist, whether you have your own piece of land or not, you can take up this line and make a decent living out of it,” says landscape designer Leena Lobo.
Job profile
“As a horticulturist, your responsibility involves increasing food safety, improving health benefits from fruits and vegetables, developing ecologically sound landscapes and gardening techniques and improving aesthetics of the urban environment,” informs horticulturist Mala Vijaykar.
Professional horticulturists can find jobs in areas such as production, landscape design, installation and maintenance, marketing, research, pest management, industries serving growers of horticultural crops, inspection, communication etc. Job profiles in the above can be classified as;
* Production: You can operate your own business or manage a greenhouse, landscaping service, orchard, vegetable farm, flower or plant shop, nursery, garden centre or processing firm.
* Landscape design, installation and maintenance: As a horticulturist, you can design planting plans with trees, shrubs, ground covers, herbaceous ornaments and turf grass.
* Marketing: You can engage in the wholesale or retail sale of seeds, gardening supplies, cut flowers, fresh or processed fruits and vegetables, house plants, floral arrangements or nursery stock. You can also become a buyer of these items for chain stores, government or private institutions or take up wholesale distribution.
* Research: You can become a scientist and seek ways to improve the yield and quality of fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants, and to develop methods for handling, storing and marketing them. You can also specialise in plant breeding, plant nutrition, plant growth regulation with chemicals or other fascinating areas of plant research.
* Pest management: You can be trained to work with state and central regulatory agencies, agricultural suppliers, processing corporations, large farm organisations or become an agricultural agent.
* Industries serving growers of horticultural crops: As a trained horticulturist, you can find a job in seed firms, manufacturing of fertilisers, pesticide materials, landscape or farm equipment, and canning and freezing companies.
* Inspection: You can find employment in government or private agencies as an inspector of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables. It then becomes your responsibility to ensure high levels of quality and uniformity in the production industry.
* Communication or spreading awareness: Writing for gardening or agricultural magazines, newspapers, television and radio can be a rewarding field for men and women trained in horticulture.
Continued....
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