Programs of Study

The Produce Aggregator Program (PAP) is designed for one purpose - to help participants become successful agricultural produce aggregators. It is different from, but complementary to, the Aquaculture Enterprise Program (AEP) and the Agricultural Microentrepreneur Program (AMP) which teach participants how to grow aquaculture and agricultural products, respectively. Undervalued as it often is, the function of the typical aggregator is viewed as transactional, and predominantly domiciled in the post-harvest domain. In practice, aggregators play an invaluable role up and down the agricultural supply chain by providing supportive services to farmers and processors alike in both the forward and the reverse directions of the transaction path.

This program is specifically designed to support those looking at pursuing careers as professional aggregators. It also provides programmatic support to those that might be seeking to pursue this career later in life. These include mid to senior-level working professionals, retirees, and those seeking secondary sources of income. The goal of the program is to help individuals who have no experience (but significant interest) to learn what they need to know to become successful produce aggregators. Led by highly experienced instructors and practitioners, the program emphasizes hands-on, practical learning. Furthermore, the program provides students access to an affiliate offtaker, ensuring that they are able to practice and succeed in their new field of endeavor.  The 6-month Certificate in Produce Aggregation provides significant training in both domestic as well as export market entry, with the latter drawing heavily from the International Trade & Export Development program also offered by IDMANN Institute.

The Agricultural Microentrepreneur Program (AMP) is designed for one purpose - to help participants become successful, profitable farmers. The program is specifically designed to  accommodate those looking at entering farming later in their careers. These include mid to senior-level working professionals, retirees, and those seeking secondary sources of income. The goal of the program is to help individuals who have no experience (but significant interest) to learn what they need to know to become agricultural microentrepreneurs.

Led by highly experienced instructors and practitioners, the program emphasizes hands-on, practical learning. Furthermore, the program provides students a buyback option on the crops they grow (via a participating offtaker), so market access ceases to be a problem. That way, they focus on running efficient and proficient farming operations. 

The 6-month Certificate in Agricultural Microentrepreneurship is organized along two tracks; one track is for those interested in staples and root crops (e.g. cassava, yam, rice, etc.) while the second track is for those interested in vegetables, fruits and exotics. Both tracks offer the buyback option so as to ensure that upon completion of their program, trainees are able to start commercial operation in a timely and seamless manner. The program also provides some guidance on the potential for export of the agricultural products drawing from our International Trade & Export Development Program. (Interested students may also wish to consider our Aquaculture Enterprise Development Program.)

This program is designed to accomplish four things:

• Teach students the fundamentals of instrumentation, data acquisition, instrument controls and automation across a wide variety of sectors and industries to support scientific, industrial, technological  and commercial applications.
• Teach students the hardware and software applications that support many commercial offerings in the market today.
• Provide students the tools to objectively evaluate their instrumentation and data acquisition needs with a view to developing in-house solutions to meet those needs.
• Give students the practical skills—and tactile experience—of developing and programming robust and industrial-grade data acquisition, control and instrumentation algorithms using commonly available software.

The course will be based on the use of (the ubiquitous) Microsoft EXCEL® as the primary platform for data acquisition and control instead of the highly proprietary and expensive software platforms offered by many commercial vendors.

The Digital Technology Program trains IT entrepreneurs. The 6-month program imparts the technical and entrepreneurial skills students need to start, operate or expand businesses that are based on digital technologies. The primary focus of the program is on enterprises based on applications development and computer programming

The Aquaculture Enterprise Development program offers two training courses. The 6-month Certificate in Aquaculture Operations trains people to become proficient in the technical aspects of aquaculture operation. This is in contrast to the 3-month Certificate in Aquaculture Entrepreneurship which provides graduates the means to start and operate aquaculture enterprises.

This 6-month program is designed to support students to develop thriving export enterprises. The program supports students to accomplish three things: (a) Explore and understand foreign markets with a focus on the preferences of foreign consumers and the expectations of foreign buyers.  (b) Learn how to develop and improve products to meet those expectations. (c) Package, ship and ACTUALLY sell those products in the indicated foreign markets for a profit. The program is designed to assist students practically through the entire process on the way to earning a Certificate in Export Development.