17 Popular Horticulture Careers (With Duties And Salaries)

Updated 4 January 2023

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If you are passionate about nature and want a career that allows you to work with various types of plant life, you can consider a job in the horticulture industry. Through these roles, you can perform a range of duties, including producing food or medicine and coordinating research programmes. Knowing about different types of horticulture careers may help you prepare for your job search and identify the right career path. In this article, we list 17 jobs you can consider if you want to work in horticulture, along with their average salaries and typical duties.

17 Popular Horticulture Careers

Here is a list of 17 horticulture careers that you can consider pursuing:

1. Agricultural Equipment Technician

National average salary: ₹34,763 per month

Primary duties: Agricultural equipment technicians' primary responsibilities include developing strategies for land preparation, including planting and harvesting. They create farming machinery to alleviate difficulties and make farming more sustainable. They also build structures for crop storage using their expertise in agricultural methods.

2. Florist

National average salary: ₹20,584 per month

Primary duties: Florists' primary responsibilities include growing, cutting, arranging and selling flowers at a shop or flower store. They arrange flowers for consumers and design arrangements for special occasions such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries. Florists may work on-site to maintain flower arrangements and may also offer additional products like decorative cards and baskets to complement their bouquets.

3. Gardener

National average salary: ₹16,209 per month

Primary duties: A gardener maintains the beauty of planted environments by growing flowers in a garden, designing outdoor spaces and maintaining sufficient diversity of plant life. Gardeners are familiar with creating temperature and lighting conditions that are conducive to plant growth survival. They also keep a garden healthy and fruitful by watering and fertilising its components, using tools and equipment like spades, hoes, seeders, spreaders, edgers and hedge trimmers to do so.

4. Nursery Assistant

National average salary: ₹16,046 per month

Primary duties: A nursery assistant maintains plants, trees and flowers in a nursery. They may care for and maintain plants in gardens and transplant trees and shrubs. Professionals in this field administer chemical remedies to plants to protect them from insects and diseases. This line of work involves growing, harvesting, labelling and potting crops for simple identification. Customers can also buy plants at the nursery and have nursery assistants relocate their purchase to a place of their choice.

5. Microbiologist

National average salary: ₹17,611 per month

Primary duties: Microbiologists' primary responsibilities include studying and examining the development of microbes and other microorganisms, such as fungi, bacteria, parasites and viruses. They study the growth and interactions of these creatures with plant and animal life. They may also research pests and diseases to mitigate their environmental impact.

6. Irrigation Technician

National average salary: ₹21,836 per month

Primary duties: Irrigation technicians' primary responsibilities include installing and maintaining irrigation systems for plants and crops in fields, parks, gardens and other green spaces. Mowers, trenchers and tractors are among the heavy machinery they operate. They also address issues such as irrigation system leaks or over-watering, which can harm crops and plants.

7. Agronomist

National average salary: ₹18,866 per month

Primary duties: Agronomists' main responsibilities include cultivating crops on arable land, controlling weeds and pests and harvesting crops when they are ready. They may have extensive knowledge about activities like breeding animals, ploughing fields, maintaining irrigation, sowing crops and managing pastures. Agronomists provide advice to farmers on soil management and sustainable approaches. They also inspect crops for signs of illness and offer advice on how to boost a farm's yield.

8. Farmer

National average salary: ₹14,277 per month

Primary duties: A farmer's primary responsibilities include planting and harvesting crops for self-sufficiency or for profit. They also grow live animals and harvest natural resources on their property. Farmers can specialise in a single crop or manage a multi-crop field with the use of ploughs, tractors and combine harvesters. Their tasks differ based on the type of food they farm or grow, where they live and what season they farm in.

9. Horticulture Manager

National average salary: ₹19,367 per month

Primary duties: Horticulture managers' primary responsibilities include growing plants for commercial use in public places, parks and gardens. They prepare planting schedules and crop cultivation and harvesting schedules. Horticulture managers often work with potential clients to arrange contracts for the sale of their products.

10. Environmental Engineer

National average salary: ₹19,963 per month

Primary duties: Environmental engineers' primary responsibilities include identifying and determining solutions to environmental problems. They work to protect the environment and improve a community's quality of life. They monitor aspects like waste disposal to ensure that the environment is conducive to sustaining plant growth. They also conduct studies on climate change, air quality and sustainability, among other plant-related topics.

11. Logger

National average salary: ₹18,972 per month

Primary duties: A logger's primary responsibilities include cutting down trees around built environments and in forested areas. They are typically familiar with environmental legislation and trends and can address their responsibilities using hoists, cranes and saws. Loggers also treat and transport trees to manufacturing and processing units to transform them into products like paper or lumber. Professionals in this domain can aid forest officials in the maintenance of trees in protected areas and wildlife reserves. They also contribute to the preservation of forest ecosystems by selectively harvesting trees.

12. Biologist

National average salary: ₹27,428 per month

Primary duties: Biologists' primary responsibilities include collecting and analysing biological samples from plant life to conduct laboratory research. They research the effects of the environment on plants and crops and vice versa. They may also conduct detailed studies on specimens to document their growth and development, functions and anatomy.

13. Horticulturist

National average salary: ₹18,266 per month

Primary duties: Horticulturists improve fruit output, flavour and size. They study disease and pest control and also ways to reproduce plant life. They may also engage in landscaping, gardening, plant breeding and agricultural production. Horticulturists can help individuals revitalise land that has deteriorated health.

14. Groundskeeper

National average salary: ₹29,592 per month

Primary duties: Groundskeepers are responsible for the upkeep of outdoor spaces such as parks, gardens, leisure areas and campus grounds. They assist in maintaining lawns and fields by performing routine weed and insect management. They keep the region clean by collecting rubbish from the grounds and parking lots, and cleaning out drains periodically.

15. Landscape Architect

National average salary: ₹28,921 per month

Primary duties: The primary responsibility of a landscape architect is to create visually appealing and environmentally sustainable spaces such as landmarks, parks, outdoor habitats and remote dwellings. Urban design, landscape modelling and site planning are all domains that landscape architects typically engage in. They typically plan the placement of buildings and plants in public spaces with an aim to promote community environmental health.

16. Forester

National average salary: ₹29,499 per month

Primary duties: Foresters' primary responsibilities are to conserve and harvest trees while also attempting to promote forest growth and preserve forest resources. They use inventories to figure out how much wood they want to gather and how much it may cost. Foresters also plan programmes such as plantation drives, wood site preparation, forest fire-prevention initiatives and animal habitat monitoring schemes.

17. Ecologist

National average salary: ₹41,043 per month

Primary duties: An ecologist's main responsibilities include testing plants and analysing samples to figure out the causes of various plant illnesses. Ecologists study the effects of contaminants on plants and conduct laboratory studies. They also evaluate plant life in an ecosystem and make recommendations for which plants to plant in specific areas to influence the environment.

Salary figures reflect data listed on Indeed Salaries at time of writing. Salaries may vary depending on the hiring organisation and a candidate's experience, academic background and location.