Chief Agri Business Officer

Chief Agribusiness Officer

Description: Plantation, Horticulture & Agri-P&L Leadership

Reports to: Founder & CEO

Location: Field-first; on-site at the plantation, estate or farm wherever critical operations require presence planting, monsoon onset, harvest, audits, crisis response. This is not a desk role.

Engagement: Full-time, P&L-linked

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

- Revenue & EBITDA Ownership Final accountability for agri P&L: pricing, harvest realisation, FMaaS unit economics, export contracts, IIHR/ICAR-licensed SKUs, carbon and ESG monetisation.

- Cost & Capital Discipline Own COGS/kg, input cost/acre, labour productivity, working-capital cycle, capex ROI, vendor consolidation, B-grade rescue economics.

- Crop Science Authority Final sign-off on crop selection, varietal, planting calendar, pollarding, IPDM, fertigation, replanting across sandalwood, Taiwan + VNR guava, Arka Supreme avocado, Bhagwa pomegranate, PKM-1 moringa, dragon fruit (red + white flesh), coffee estate (Arabica + Robusta with cardamom + pepper intercrops), and 3 rotational seasonal crops.

- By-Product & Value-Add Monetisation Build and run the conversion of every crop into its full by-product set (pulp, oil, powder, fibre, leaf tea, distillate) and sell to premium B2B retailers, QSR, HORECA and exporters.

- AI-First Precision Operations Run satellite NDVI/NDRE, IoT soil/weather sensing, drones (inventory, mortality scan, precision spraying), computer-vision QC, digital twin per plot, agentic-AI advisory & audit-bot workflows, ERP/CRM integration. Mandate weekly AI automations from the technical team.

- Irrigation, Water & Soil Engineering Drip hydraulics, borewell/pump sizing, summer storage ponds, soil-test-driven nutrition, BioChar, SOC improvement.

- IPDM (Biological-First) Sandalwood spike disease, stem borer, nematodes, sucking pests, fungal wilt bio-control, trap crops, syringe injection, preventive sprays.

- Harvest-to-Cash SOP Grading, cold chain, packaging, pre-booking, D2C, B2B (Reliance, BigBasket, Spencers, HOPCOMS, mandi), e-commerce, B-grade value-add.

- FMaaS & Investor Plots Single-point technical accountability per customer plot. Defend the 15-year plantation yield narrative with data. Eliminate plantation-timeline disputes.

- Commercial Growth Bets Exports (GCC, EU, SEA) with GlobalGAP/IndGAP + CBAM-ready docs; Plantation-as-a-Service to external estates; agri-tourism at hospitality sites; MIDH, NHB, PMKSY, RKVY, NABARD,NMSA scheme leverage.

- People & Bench Build internal team; reduce external consultant dependence 50%; succession plan for every L-2; 100% farmer/farmhand training.

- R&D, IP & Partnerships Live MoUs with IIHR, UAS-B, ICAR, IISc, FRI. Pursue DSIR R&D recognition. Publications and IP nice-to-have, not the priority.

2026 TECH & INNOVATION STACK (MUST-HAVE FLUENCY)

- AI & Agentic Automation Claude / GPT / Gemini agents for advisory, reporting, audit

- Satellite Crop Intelligence NDVI, NDRE, SOC mapping, VRA maps, disease & pest forecasting

- IoT Field Sensing Soil moisture, soil temperature, micro-weather stations, irrigation advisories

- Drones & Robotics Inventory, mortality scan, precision spraying, forestry mapping

- Digital Twin per Plot Plant-wise health, irrigation, yield, mortality linked to investor dashboards

- Computer Vision Fruit grading, disease detection, post-harvest QC

- Variable-Rate Fertigation AI Biggest input-cost lever for 2026

- Carbon MRV & ESG Tech SOC-based carbon credits, CBAM-ready documentation

- Blockchain Traceability Soil-health passport, EU/GCC export readiness

- Regenerative Agriculture Soil-carbon monetisation; premium B2B and export edge

- Parametric Crop Insurance Climate-risk underwriting on every acre

- Protected Cultivation Polyhouse / hydroponics for premium fruit & spice exports

- WhatsApp-First Advisory Farmer network, FPO, FMaaS investor engagement

- ERP + CRM Integration Internal management systems for P2P, harvest-to-cash, investor workflows

BEHAVIOURAL MUST-HAVES

- Vision Aligned Believes precision-ag + agri-realty can be Indias next category leader; rejects agri is low-margin as default.

- Performance Has personally turned a loss-making plantation or agri-P&L profitable; shows numbers, not titles.

- Skills & Tools Operated AI / IoT / drone / digital twin stack at commercial scale, not pilot.

- Focus Comfortable with weekly cash-flow reviews and daily field MIS; on-site at planting, monsoon onset, harvest.

- Energy & Will Owns mortality, weather loss, price crash never consultant said or labour didnt show.

- Culture Contributor Builds Indian agri talent; lean overhead; zero comfort-zone leadership.

- Potential to Grow Can scale from current acreage to 10 without re-hiring the role above.

Operating principle: Data over opinion. Ownership over excuses. Investor-grade communication at all times.