Plant Scientists

If gardening fascinates you and you like to grow new varieties of flowers and plants in your backyard, you will be surprised to know your hobby can shape up into lucrative career option for you. All you need is right education and training for being Plant Scientists and related career opportunities.

A degree in Plant science prepares students for careers or further study in areas related to research or teaching about plants, or the growing of plants as food or fiber (field crops, vegetables, fruit or vineyards), ornamental plant production, pest management, plant breeding, plant pathology and plant protection. You can work in diverse areas as per your area of interest or specialization.

Where Can Plant Scientists Work


  • Agronomy (increasing crop yields)
  • Botanical gardens
  • Plant biotechnology (a growing field where researchers insert protective or nutritional genes into plants),
  • Plant breeding (developing disease resistant and high yield plant varieties)
  • Food science
  • Forestry and natural resource management
  • Horticulture (includes all work, commercially or scientifically, with flowers, vegetables, fruits, turf, and forestry)
  • Floriculture (growing, marketing and designing with flowers) and gardening
  • Wine production
  • Landscape architecture
  • Plant pathology (controlling diseases)
  • Cooperative extension
  • Garden writers and photographers or science journalism
  • Ethnobotany and medicinal plants

Role of Plant Scientists

  • Conduct research in different areas of agriculture.
  • Provide information or recommendations to farmers or other landowners regarding ways in which they can best use land, promote plant growth, or avoid or correct problems such as erosion.
  • Develop ways to improve the quantity and quality of field crops and farm animals.
  • Create new food products and develop new and better ways to process, package, and deliver them.
  • Study the composition of soil as it relates to plant growth.
  • Communicate research findings to the scientific community, food producers, and the public


Skills Required to be Plant Scientists


Academic Qualifications: MSc or MTech with specializations like Plant Taxonomy; Plant Pathology ,Plant Morphology, Plant Physiology, Plant Genetics, Plant Ecology

Independent Thinking: Plant scientists should be able to work independently.

Oral and Writing Communications: To be able to communicate clearly and concisely to other team members and other scientists related to the project.

Basic Business principles: Most of these scientists also need an understanding of basic business principles, the ability to apply statistical techniques.

Computer knowledge: Should have ability to use computers to analyze data and to control biological and chemical processing.


Click on the links below for a list of other careers in agriculture:

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