Crop Agronomy Lead

Role Summary:

The Crop Agronomy Lead will be responsible for developing and implementing crop-specific agronomic strategies that support product evaluation, commercialization, and market positioning. The role will work closely with Seed Product Development (SPD), Production, Sales, and Marketing teams to deliver agronomic solutions that maximize product performance, productivity, and farmer profitability.

The crop agronomy lead will drive product testing, hybrid advancement decisions, commercialization strategies, technical capability building, and agronomic innovation to strengthen the seed portfolio and ensure sustainable business growth.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop crop specific agronomy strategies aligned with business objective
• Lead Product Evaluation & Testing: Drive product testing & evaluation, product commercialization, product positioning. Drive value through appropriate positioning of the product.
• Drive hybrid advancement and commercialization decisions through structured review and decision-making processes.
• Support product registration activities and ensure inclusion of approved hybrids in sales permissions and relevant regulatory requirements.
• Drive crop specific initiatives & future technologies to improve productivity and increase farmer income
• Training: Technical support/sales support

Product Evaluation & Testing:

• Design, implement, and oversee agronomic trials for new and existing seed products.
• Collaborate with SPD teams to evaluate product performance across environments and management systems as per farmer growing conditions.
• Evaluate the hybrid fitment and performance against customer needs and growing conditions.
• Analyze data and generate actionable recommendations for product advancement and commercialization.
• Develop one pager on product positioning & recommendations with details of key product features & benefits
• Execute sampling strategies for new product ramp-up based on product value delivery versus key competitors.
• Work closely with category leads/product managers and research to understand the portfolio gap, segment wise product requirement and build the portfolio through appropriate testing
• Work closely with zonal teams/farmers to understand the current and changing customer attributes and guide the SPD team to meet the product requirements.
Coordinate hybrid testing with State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and other institutions to support product registration and inclusion in sales licenses

Technical Knowledge & Training/Sales Support

• Serve as the primary agronomic expert for internal stakeholders and external customers.
• Provide technical support to Sales and Marketing teams for product positioning and customer engagement.
• Develop a strong understanding of customer needs, growing conditions, and market dynamics to support effective product placement.
• Monitor changing environmental factors, pest and disease pressures, cropping system shifts, and profitability challenges impacting product performance.
• Identify training needs of sales and Zonal agronomy team and deliver training on testing, product characterization, product positioning, crop management, customer complaint handling to build technical capabilities.
Critically evaluating and reviewing an agronomist’s goals are aligned as per CUs business needs

Drive Initiatives & Future Technologies

• Monitor & understand emerging agronomic technologies, crop management trends, and industry developments.
• Drive & adapt to changing crop agronomy considering the changing growing conditions, resource availability like Mechanization, crop management, etc.
• Drive initiatives to improve the productivity of advanced hybrids & identify opportunities to improve product performance through agronomic interventions.
Establish collaborations with universities, research institutions, and industry partners to drive crop business

Qualification: Minimum MSc in Agricu lture.

Experience:

• 8-10 years of experience in agronomy function: Product testing, evaluation and commercialization, working closely with cross functional teams.

Behavioral Competencies:

• Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Strong leadership and team management capabilities
• Deep understanding of customer needs & attributes.
• Good communication skills
• Customer orientation & stakeholder management skills.