Agribusiness - Diploma in Agriculture
Add value to your education. Learn about global trade. Navigate new technology. Manage your business for profit. Take your ideas to market. These are just a few opportunities available to you when you choose the Agribusiness specialization of the Diploma in Agriculture program at the University of Saskatchewan.
What is Agribusiness?
Agribusiness encompasses a wide range of activities that contribute to our supply of food and natural fibres. With an industry worth more than $95 billion a year in Canada alone, agribusiness is big business of local and global importance. Agribusiness comes into play at every stage in the food chain, from primary production, to the packaging of your favourite snack food. It must respond to advances in technology, major changes in trade and policy and to an ever-changing, consumer-driven marketplace.
The Agribusiness specialization in the Diploma in Agriculture program is an intensive, two-year program designed to train students for employment in all aspects of the industry. Students learn about business management, marketing, finance and sales as well as the legal and institutional environment that characterizes the industry.
This program has given me a broad look at every aspect of the agriculture industry, from examining soil nutrients to analysing and understanding world commodity markets.
I feel I’m gaining a useful, relevant and applied education not offered in any other program with the added benefit of a small classroom environment and professors who are extremely approachable.—Scott Owens,
Dipl. Ag.
Career Opportunities
The Agribusiness specialization in the Diploma in Agriculture program gives students the skills to start up their own business, to join the family business or to be part of an industry team. Major employment prospects for agribusiness professionals include: bank loans officers and financial managers; processing managers, sales managers, production managers; farmers, ranchers, feedlot managers, hog barn managers or manufacturers; business consultants, commodity marketers, real estate broker and as a communications advisor.
Choose Your Program!
The Agribusiness specialization in the Diploma in Agriculture program is administered by the College of Agriculture & Bioresources and is offered through the Department of Agricultural Economics. Completing this program leads to a Diploma in Agriculture, and graduates are eligible for membership in the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists as Agricultural Technologists.
Students choose to specialize in Agribusiness beginning in the second term of their first year in the Diploma in Agriculture program. The Agribusiness specialization combines a broad core of subject matter with specialized courses in agribusiness.
The types of courses students will take include:
- Courses in marketing where students learn cutting-edge marketing strategies for traditional crops and livestock, specialty and exotic niche market commodities, and processed products from the farm gate through to the consumer’s fork.
- Financial management courses that teach essential skills for managing a modern agricultural enterprise.
- Courses in contracting, taxation and agricultural law to provide a solid basis for working and managing in today’s agribusiness climate.
- A variety of additional courses that give students the background necessary to understand how and why world economies are changing and the impacts of globalization on the marketplace, both at home and internationally.
A Stepping Stone...
The Agribusiness specialization in the Diploma in Agriculture program can lead in many directions. It provides students with a solid foundation of marketable skills with which to enter the workforce directly, or upon which to base further studies.
Agribusiness graduates may continue their studies as degree students. If students wish to pursue a particular topic beyond the Agribusiness program, some courses are transferable to the B.S.A. degree. As well, Agribusiness training can provide background that will give a student the edge in other professions, such as journalism, communications, marketing or politics.
Research Facilities
Agribusiness students are housed in the Agriculture building, a prominent feature of the beautiful U of S campus. Here, students have access to outstanding laboratory, multi-media and study facilities and exceptional student resources, such as the CIBC Centre for Agricultural Entrepreneurship.
Other highlights include:
- molecular biology and nutrition laboratories
- small and large animal intensive research facilities
- on-campus livestock research stations, including swine, dairy, poultry, beef and sheep units
- a metabolic research facility
- a feed processing pilot plant
- a germ free research facility
- an aquaculture research facility
Getting Involved!
Within the College, you will be housed in the Department of Bioresource Policy, Business & Economics. You can meet and mix with professors and staff in the Department at social events like the annual Fall Mixer student barbeque, or join your fellow students in the many educational, social and fundraising activities put on throughout the year.
As members of the College of Agriculture & Bioresources, Agribusiness students can participate in one of the most active and recognized student bodies on campus. Relax in the spacious and comfortable student lounge or join one of the many college- and university-based athletic, academic or social clubs.
Admission Requirements
The following is a list of high school subjects required for admission. Please select the province/territory where you completed high school.
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