The Role of Agripreneurship and farming Innovations for youth in Agriculture & Animal Husbandry  Engagement in India

The Role of Agripreneurship and farming Innovations for youth in Agriculture & Animal Husbandry  Engagement in India

MOHAN RAKESH,AGRIPRENEUR, ANAND

The agribusiness word integrates two different yet cohesive domains that have various gears to make it compatible with each other. The economic activities that are derived from or connected to farm products and its supply chain are often named as Agribusiness. In India, agriculture is one of the principle economic activities that are carried out by majority of the population. Employing the widest population base, agriculture is the main source of income for many living below poverty line. It may play a significant role in alleviating poverty if done with utmost precision with optimum utilization of resources along with least wastages. Thus, a lot of intervention and investments are needed to ensure a sustainable livelihood for many people employed in agriculture. India has a rich biodiversity in its account, making it one of the largest producers of many commodities across the globe. At the same time, this diversity in the landforms, soils, crops, cropping patterns along with cultural and demographic variability of the manpower carrying out the farming and related operations creates few unstandardized protocols and inefficient value chains. The poor yet developing infrastructure is one of the biggest hurdles in realization of the maximum efficiency of these operations. Due to perishability of the produce, wastages during handling is another issue that creates a heavy burden on the economy. Improvement in productivity becomes an important factor for the country’s food security in the light of the constrained availability of agricultural land.

Agribusiness is a term used to describe the sector that encompasses all economic activities that are related to farming, i.e., breeding, crop production/farming, farm machinery, distribution, marketing etc. It relates to industries that are engaged in farming or that produce farm inputs. Examples of agribusiness include farm machinery manufacturing, seed supply, and agrichemicals. It also is used to describe businesses that are involved in the marketing and distribution of farm products. These businesses include warehouses, wholesalers, processors, retailers, and more. Any company that participates in the production, marketing, safety, and distribution of food is involved in agribusiness. More precisely it is defined as a sector that supports the growth of the agricultural industry, which is pivotal to economic growth. It also continues to play a crucial role in the growth of developing countries. Agribusinesses can potentially improve agricultural productivity, which is why governments often offer subsidies to agricultural businesses. Agricultural activities also contribute to an improved system of food security and sustainable food production, as well as income for a majority of the poor in developing countries. However, the activities increase the emission of greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming – which is why innovation is important in the sector to address such problems. Entrepreneur refers to an individual that has an idea and intends to execute on that idea, usually to disrupt the current market with a new product or service. Entrepreneurship in agriculture can also be defined as the formation of novel economic organisation for the intention of growth under risk and uncertainty in agriculture (Dollinger, 2003). Contrary, Gray (2002) defines an entrepreneur as an individual who controls a business with the purpose of growing the business along with leadership and managerial skills necessary for achieving those goals. The most prominent example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses. In economics, entrepreneurship connected with land, labour, natural resources and capital can generate a profit. The entrepreneurial vision is defined by discovery and risk-taking and is an indispensable part of a nation’s capacity to succeed in an everchanging and more competitive global marketplace. Many small-scale farmers and extension organisations understand that there is little future for farmers unless they become more entrepreneurial in the way they run their farms. They must increasingly produce for markets and for profits. Becoming more entrepreneurial can be a challenge for small-scale farmers. They will need help from extension workers and other institutions. Innovation is defined as the process of making an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value and/or for which customers will pay. There are many different types of examples of innovation such as in social innovation, incremental innovation and open innovation among others. The word “innovation” is derived from the Latin verb innovare, which means to renew. In essence, the word has retained its meaning up until today. Innovation means to improve or to replace something, for example, a process, a product, or a service. Therefore we can say: “Innovation is a process by which a domain, a product, or a service is renewed and brought up to date by applying new processes, introducing new techniques, or establishing successful ideas to create new value” It requires more creativity and more willingness to take risks than the implementation of typical projects. Entrepreneurs are also innovators. The skills and techniques of innovative thinking are not just vital in work, but useful in everyday life as well, helping us to grow and develop in new situations and think about how to adapt to change more easily. Innovation skills refer to the talent of exploiting new ideas for the purpose of gaining social or economic value. Innovation skills are usually a combination of one’s ability to think creatively, problem-solving ability, as well as functional and/or technical abilities. According to Baragheh in 2009 “Innovation is the multi-stage process whereby organisations transform ideas into new/improved products, service or processes, in order to advance, compete and differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace”. Agricultural innovation is the process whereby individuals or organisations bring new or existing products, processes or ways of organisation into use for the first time in a specific context in order to increase effectiveness, competitiveness, resilience to shocks or environmental sustainability and thereby contribute. A ‘value chain’ in agriculture describes the range of activities and set of actors that bring agricultural produce from the point of production to point of consumption, in which value is added at each stage. At one end of the agricultural value chain are the producers – the farmers who grow crops and raise animals. At the other end are the consumers who eat, drink, wear and use the final products. And in the middle are many thousands of men and women, and small and large businesses. Each person and each business performs one small step in the chain, and each adds value along the way – by growing, buying, selling, processing, transporting, storing, checking, packaging and branding. Other people and other businesses have important roles supporting the chain. Banks provide loans; governments establish laws and policies, and agricultural research organisations develop ways for farmers to more successfully participate in value chains. The concept of Agri-Business is now changing minds and farmers’ also are now becoming an entrepreneur. Small-scale farmers all over the world have shown a remarkable ability to adapt. They look for better ways to organise their farms and enhance their income. They try new crops and cultivars, better animals, and alternative technologies to increase productivity, diversify production, and reduce risk – and to increase profits. They have become more market oriented and have learned to take calculated risks to open or create new markets for their products. They need to be innovative, forward-looking, capability of managing their businesses as long-term ventures and ability to identify opportunities and seize them. The farmer having an entrepreneurial spirit try to act differently and make decisions about the value chain to be followed in his farm to increase the return and profits of the farm business. Increase in farmer income is a big task and Government of India is very particular to enhance it through different means. Few procedures are much needed to adapt in the form of models to enhance the income of farmers and these are as under: Promoting Innovations: Innovations are need of the hour to grow as entrepreneur or start-up depending upon the solution to the problems. We need to promote innovations through farmers and young entrepreneurs as they need to participate actively in designing, testing, adapting and introducing innovations to the agriculture. Increase in Value Addition: Farmer-entrepreneurs need to realise that capturing value requires producing for buyers and final consumers. But just producing and selling is insufficient. This requires greater understanding and knowledge of value chains and their different elements. It requires a plan for participating further down the value chain. Farmers capture more value by selling their regular fresh produce directly to the consumers. Another way is to sell high-value products such as organic products. Instead of producing commodities that are undifferentiated, farmers need to produce commodities that are differentiated such as organic fruits, a unique type of commodity or other specialised products for a limited “niche” market. Another way of adding value is to enter into production and marketing contracts. Contracts are increasingly being used between farmers and input suppliers, farmers and processors and between farmers and other buyers for the production and supply of fresh or processed agricultural produce. Development and Adaptation of New Technologies: Farmers need to be encouraged to develop and adapt new technologies and share them with other farmers. Extension workers can facilitate partnerships among farmers and between farmers and researchers to work together to identify, develop and test new technologies and practices to improve productivity and profitability. Use of Information Technology: Now-a-days information technology is available and accessible everywhere. Therefore, it is a very powerful way for extension workers to educate and inform the farmers about new ideas, technologies and other information. Physical distances and the lack of transportation facilities often limit the ability of extension workers to share information with farmers. Mobile phones, tablets, and computer-based systems can be used to overcome these physical barriers. The challenge is how information technology can be harnessed for the benefit of both extension agents and farmers without compromising the importance of human and unique local factors. Agri-business entrepreneurship is important for national economy in following ways (Sah et al., 2009). (i) It helps in achieving productivity profit by small farmers and amalgamating them into local, national and international markets. (ii) It helps in decreasing food costs and provides high quality diets to the rural and urban poor in the country. (iii)It accelerates growth, diversifies income and develops entrepreneurial opportunities in both rural and urban areas. Agribusiness increases the scenario and opportunities for value addition, packaging, branding, retailing, and exports of agricultural commodities through improved technology and agribusiness management. Indian population directly or indirectly depends on agriculture and now agribusiness is taking the lead and raw material for industries comes from agricultural area only. Now, the time is approaching where agribusiness is most likely to control the Indian economic growth. Presently, there are about 25 per cent to 30 per cent of post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables before reaching the final consumer, i.e., due to lack of proper postharvest management practices. However, introduction of agribusiness in agriculture has created lot of changes in business professionalism. The scope and opportunity in the agribusiness has also been increased. The possible opportunities of entrepreneurship in agriculture are: (i) Agro produce processing units – New product is not manufactured but the agricultural produce is processed to form end product, rice mills and dal mills are few examples. (ii) Agro-produce manufacturing units – In this category, new products are produced depending upon the agricultural produce as the main raw material, sugar factories and bakery are few examples. (iii)Agro-inputs manufacturing units – These units are engaged in the production of goods either for mechanisation of agriculture or for increasing agricultural productivity. Fertiliser and pesticide production units, food processing units and agricultural implements are few examples. iv) Agro service centres – Agricultural engineering workshops and service centre for repairing, maintenance and serving the agricultural implement used in agriculture are the part of agro-service centres. Bansal (2011) has proposed some entrepreneurial areas in agriculture (i) Farming – crop, dairy/poultry/goat, fish, rabbit, vegetables, flowers, ornamental plants, palmrosa, fodder, sericulture, agro-forestry, beekeeping, mushroom. (ii) Product marketing – wholesale, retail, commission agent, transport, export, finance, storage, consultancy. (iii) Inputs marketing- fertiliser, agricultural chemicals, seeds, machineries, animal feed, poultry hatchery, vet-medicines, landscaping, agriculture credit, custom service, bio-control units, bio-tech units. (iv) Processing – milk, fruits, vegetables, paddy, sugarcane, cashew, coir, poultry, cattle, tannery, brewery. (v) Facilitative – Research and development, marketing information, quality control, insurance, energy. Agri-business entrepreneurship is the future of India and Government of India is already focusing on it. Farmers and agri start-ups willing to grow are having number of opportunities for agri-business entrepreneurship and some of them are listed below: (i) Input industry is one of the important industries where demand for agricultural inputs have increased. (ii) Agricultural Biotechnology is having scope in the form of seed production, biocontrol agents, industrial harnessing of microbes for different products. (iii) Processing is another area where agripreneurs are having opportunities and can excel. (iv) Animal husbandry as an industry can become a huge source of generating employment and livelihood. Introduction of new product (designer egg, crossbred cows, hybrid fowls, etc.) are some of the areas where one can excel as agripreneur. (v) Value addition to the livestock products such as milk, egg, meat, and fish has huge profit potential. Value of the products get increased many folds during processing, and thereby provide excellent returns. (vi) Non-Timber Forest Products are unexploited and therefore has scope for developing an enterprise. (vii) Beekeeping, apiary and mushroom production can be taken up on great extent in India. (viii)Organic farming has huge potential in India as the pesticide and inorganic fertiliser application are less in India compared to industrial nations of the world. (ix) Huge opportunities for production and promotion of bio-pesticides and biocontrol agents for protection of crops. (x) Micro-irrigation systems and labour saving farm equipments have potential in future due to declining groundwater level and labour scarcity for various agricultural operations. (xi) Green House production of vegetables and flowers can play a major role in export of these commodities. (xii) Employment opportunities have increased in marketing, transport, cold storage and warehousing facilities, credit, insurance and logistic support services because of enhanced agricultural production.

When talking about entrepreneurship in agriculture, it is termed as Agriculture Entrepreneurship or Agripreneurship. Agripreneurs, thus, do not differ from entrepreneurs in their basic traits. While profiling some of the agripreneurs (Chander, 2016, 2016a, b and c), I found them very articulate in personal, interpersonal and process skills. It is their pro-risk-taking attitude that makes them more likely to cash upon the opportunity available in new agricultural ventures compared to conventional farmers. They not only believe in new venture new gains, but also work consistently to prove themselves true. They are the trend setting farmers.

 

Recently I interacted with five such agripreneurs in India to understand what they do and why they are different.

• Traditionally many farmers are growing cereal crops since generations in Upper Gangetic Plain Zone, often with declining profit margins. But breaking away from this trend, a farmer switched to vegetable cultivation and marketing and since then has been earning huge profits. He could not only recognize the business opportunity in vegetable growing, but also turned his idea into action by dint of his hard work and disregarding possible risk in new venture.
• Raising pigs is considered dirty vocation and taboo, not considered good by many castes and communities in India. A young man in family dares to establish pig farm against this taboo and paves the way for improved earning to family enabling them to better standard of living from the extra income generated from this new enterprise in the locality. Looking at good profit prospects due to least competition, he got motivated and dared to defy and challenge the conventional thinking.
• Instead of growing food crops with little earning, a farmer opts for growing fodder crops and selling it to peri-urban dairies for better profit margins.
• A farmer chooses to diversify in farm-based tourism by making certain changes in his house to accommodate tourists and create some infrastructure for their relaxed stay and living at the farm. This change brings in better net returns compared to any other farming activity.
• One retired Air Force officer set up an Organic Dairying Unit of indigenous cows, highlighting A2 milk properties (A2 type of beta-casein protein rather than the more common A1 protein commonly found in regular milk) and free from antibiotics, selling it as labelled and branded milk, at market premium. He is ahead of his counterparts in the region who continue with conventional milk production. In all of the cases mentioned above, they were not at ease with their existing situation, so wanted to pursue the dream of making a difference in their life through change in their existing practice with chances of risk or failures. Since every case is unique in itself with the individual circumstances, there is no common formula for entrepreneurship for everyone. Each entrepreneur has to follow his own dream in his own unique way making it a unique case in a class of its own to be seen as a distinct story-mostly successful one!
• India is basically an agriculturally based economy. Approximately 70% of the population is living in rural area depending on agriculture and allied sectors for their livelihood. The development of economy through agricultural sector will help India in developing the rural community (Anderson, 1982). If we compare between rural and urban, the major proportion of the population living in rural is unable to get the benefits of the development happening in India. Agripreneurship is the entrepreneurial process taken up in agriculture or the allied sectors. It is the process of adopting new methods, processes, techniques in agriculture or the allied sectors of agriculture for better output and economic earnings. Agripreneurship converts agricultural activity into an entrepreneurial activity. By adopting innovative ideas in agriculture and allied sectors an agripreneur who is an innovator also, drives the changes in rural economy. An agripreneur job is never easy as he takes risk, adopts innovation, creates new ways of doing things and taps new markets opportunities. Agripreneurship is generally sustainable and community-oriented. Sustainable agriculture denotes a holistic, systems- oriented approach to farming that focuses on the interrelationships of social, economic, and environmental processes. One in every two Indians relies on agriculture for livelihood. Agricultural landscape has changed drastically, since this intervention,will become a second green revolution, is going to need an entirely new approach and an entirely new set of technology. A period when the productivity of global agriculture increased drastically as a result of new advance. We believe entrepreneurs are the key drivers of tomorrow innovations and integral to create a thriving economy. In agricultural businesses, planning may be even more fundamental because of the inherent ambiguity associated with agricultural production. Large population of India is dependent on agriculture for their source of revenue. But Indian agriculture is low in productivity with large number of disguised unemployment. Entrepreneurial development is a systematic and a controlled development of a person to an entrepreneur. The development of an entrepreneur refers to inculcate the entrepreneurial skills into a common person, providing the desirable knowledge, getting higher the technical, financial, marketing and managerial expertise’s, and building the entrepreneurial approach. Entrepreneurial development programmes may be defined as a program designed to help an individual in strengthening his entrepreneurial motive and in acquiring skills and capabilities necessary for playing his entrepreneurial role effectively. Traditionally, agriculture is seen as a low-tech industry with limited dynamics dominated by numerous small family firms, which are mostly paying attention on doing things better rather than doing new things. Over the last decade, this situation has changed dramatically, due to economic liberalization, reduced shelter of agricultural markets, and a fast changing, more decisive, society. Agricultural companies more progressively have to adapt to the vagaries of the market, varying consumer lifestyle, enhanced ecological regulations, new necessities for product quality, chain management, food security, sustainability, and so on. These alterations have cleared the way for new participator, innovation, and portfolio entrepreneurship.

Objective

1. To compile information relating to Agripreneurship with a specific focus on India.
2. To assess the awareness level regarding the agripreneurial activities that they can undertake.
3. To understand the extent of readiness of the youth for attempting to become agripreneurs in their given situations.
4. To identify the issues and challenges hindering the agripreneurs to emerge in India.
5. To discuss the phenomena and scope of agribusiness scenario in the Indian context.
6. To discuss the various correlation, as a strategic precursor for agribusiness development.

 

LITERATUREREVIEW

Dollinger (2003) stated that entrepreneurship in agriculture is the creation of innovative economic organization for the purpose of growth or gain under conditions of risk and uncertainty in agriculture. Sudharani (2002) defined agripreneurship as “generally sustainable, community oriented, directly marketed agriculture. Sustainable agriculture denotes a holistic, systems-oriented approach to farming that focuses on the interrelationships of social, economic and environmental process.”

Gray (2002) on the other hand defines an entrepreneur as an individual who manages a business with the intention of expanding the business and with the leadership and managerial skills necessary for achieving those goals. In the face of growing unemployment and poverty in rural areas and slow growth of agriculture there is need of entrepreneurship in agriculture for more productivity and profitability of agriculture.The Agripreneurship program is necessary to develop entrepreneurs and management workforce to cater agricultural Industry across the world (Kular & Brar, 2011).

Bairwa et al., (2014), stated that Agriculture and allied sectors areconsidered to be mainstay of the Indian economy because these are important sources of raw materials for industries and they demand for many industrial products particularly fertilizers, pesticides, agriculture implements and a variety of consumer goods.

 

Need of Agripreneurship

1. Agricultural and Horticultural products are locally available.
2. These small-scale industries do not require huge infrastructure and complex scientific technologies.
3. These small-scale Industries are economically viable and ecologically sustainable too.
4. These enterprises do not require huge expenditure.
5. Agripreneurship development has huge potential of creating new employment opportunities for rural youth.
6. Agripreneurship helps in checking migration of rural youth from villages to urban centers and helps in improving living condition of farmers by providing alternative source of income.
7. Availability of land for agricultural purposes.
8. Requirement of funds for agricultural activities.
9. Requirement of literate and educated population.
10. Both backward and forward inducements and linkages of agricultural development for industrial development.

 

Role of Agripreneurship in National Economy

1. Agripreneurship plays various roles in the growth and development of national economy through entrepreneurship development which increases the income level and employment opportunities in rural as well as urban areas.
2. Agripreneurship also play following role in the economic system, it helps in inducing productivity gains by smallholder farmers and integrating them into local, national and international markets.
3. It helps in reducing food costs, supply uncertainties and improving the diets of the rural and urban poor in the country.
4. It also generates growth, increasing and diversifying income, and providing entrepreneurial opportunities in both rural and urban areas.

Agripreneurship: Types of Enterprises

 

1. Farm Level Producers: At the individual family point every family is to be treated as venture, to enhance the production by making best use of the technology, possessions and demand in the market.
2. Service Providers: For optimizing agriculture by every family business, there are diverse types of services requisite at the village level. These include the input borrowing and distribution, hiring of equipment like tractors, sprayers, seed drills, threshers, harvesters

`dryers and scientific services such as setting up of irrigation amenities, weed curb, plant security, yielding, threshing, conveyance, warehouse, etc related opportunities exist in the livestock husbandry sector for providing breeding, immunization, disease diagnostic and treatment services, apart from allocation of cattle feed, mineral combination, forage grains, etc.

3. Input Producers: There are many flourishing enterprises, which need critical inputs. A few such inputs which can be produced by the home entrepreneurs at the village level are biopesticides, soil amendments, biofertilizers, vermicompost, plants of diverse species of vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, root media for raising plants in pots, production of cattle feed concentrate, agricultural tools, irrigation accessories, mineral mixture and complete feed. There are good openings to support, fishery, sericulture and poultry as well, during sponsorship of critical service amenities in rural areas.
4. Processing and Marketing of Farm Produce: Well-organized management of post- production processes requires higher level of knowledge as well as investment. Such venture can be handled by People’s Organizations’, either in the form of cooperatives, service joint stock companies or societies. The most successful instances are the dairy cooperatives sugar cooperatives, and fruit growers’ cooperatives in lots of States. However, the success of such undertaking is exclusively dependent on the reliability and ability of the leaders involved. Such undertaking needs good specialized support for running the activities as a competitive trade and to contend well with other players in the market, mainly the retail traders and intermediates.

 

Development of Agripreneurship in India

 

India has been considered an agrarian economy till today (Misra & Puri, 2005). There are several mechanisms worked in the Agripreneurship like forward and backward linkages with secondary and tertiary sectors i.e. manufacturing and service sectors. Opportunities in agriculture and allied sectors can be identified at different phases of agricultural process. Basically, the agripreneurial opportunities are at Input stage, Farming stage, Value chain, output processing and marketing stage and related services. Presently the scope and potential of Agripreneurial opportunities is increasing as a result of globalization and more interconnected world market. There are many potential opportunities for entrepreneurs. Agriculture process needs so many kinds of inputs likeseeds, fertilizers, pesticides and innovative and localized farm technology. So above mentioned areas create agripreneurial opportunities in the areas of developing and producing these inputs. There are very promising opportunities for entrepreneurial process in the areas like bio-pesticides, bio-fertilizers,

vermicomposting, testing and a mending soil etc . The increasing focus on organic farming is opening still more opportunities. There is a lot of scopefor R&D with respect to seed development. Even these varieties of seeds are expected to serve even in unfavourable climatic conditions. For realizing maximum revenue and improving living conditions of our farming community, productivity of the crops should be improved which is possible with good management practices alongwith good quality of inputs. India can record only 50% of the average world production per hectare. Further, there is a lot of scope in the area of agro- tech products. There is a gradual shift happening from the usage of chemical intensive fertilizers and pesticides to natural manure and pesticides. This gradual shift is again opening huge potential and opportunities for production and marketing of bio-pesticides, eco-friendly agrochemicals and natural manures. At the stage of farming, the chief objective is to maximize the output and leveraging the advantage of seasons. There is an opportunity to go innovative about balance use of fertilizers and pesticides, agrochemicals, adopting multiple cropping and crop rotation to protect and preserves and enhance the quality of soil, using the agri-tech machines to reduce the cost of cultivation and drudgery of labour etc. In the post- harvest stage, the opportunities are felt in the areas of value chain, output processing and marketing. The changes happening in supply chain management of agriculture produce are opening doors for new businesses. Agriproducts processing units are booming up. There are opportunities in the area of distribution and logistics (Pandey, 2013). To specify, for agripreneurship development, there are opportunities in the areas of farming vegetables, fruits, food grains, pulses, oil seeds etc., developing greenhouse concept, herbal plantation, dairy and poultry development, animal husbandry, grading and packaging of agri-products, establishing food processing units, establishing cold. To identify the issues and challenges hindering the farmers from emerging as agripreneurs (Alex, 2011).

 

Areas of Entrepreneurship Development in Agriculture

 

1. Agro Produce processing units – These units do not manufacture any new product. They merely process the agricultural products e.g. Rice mills, Dal mills, decorticating mills etc.
2. Agro Produce manufacturing units – These units produce entirely new products based on the agricultural products as the main raw material. e.g. Sugar factories, Bakery, Straw board units etc.
3. Agro-inputs manufacturing units – These units produce goods either for mechanization of agriculture on for increasing manufacturing plants, e.g. Fertilizer production units, food processing units, agricultural implements etc.
4. Agro service centers – These include the workshops and service centre for repairing and serving the agricultural implement used in agriculture.
5. Miscellaneous areas – Besides the above-mentioned areas, the following areas may prove to be encouraging to establish agri-enterprises such as setting up of Apiaries, feed processing units, seed processing units, mushroom production units, commercial vermin-compose units, goat rearing farmers club, organic vegetable and fruits retail outlet, bamboo plantation and Jatropha cultivation (Man, Lau & Chan, 2002).

Agripreneurship for Women Empowerment

 

Women-Agripreneurship: a way forward

Agripreneurship among women is a major agenda of government for better balancing in the society and women empowerment.

1. Land ownership: The foremost thing needed to be done is land entitlement on the name of female members of the household, so that women will become self-sustained, independent in decision making and most importantly to get easy access to benefit from banks and many other schemes which demands a land ownership.
2. Agricultural cooperatives: In many developing countries, women work individually, often isolated, in the informal economy, operating at a low level of activity and reaping marginal income. Joining forces in small-scale cooperative can provide them with the economic, social and political leverage they need (Anyon, 1980).
3. SHG: Self-help groups (SHG): SHGs are small voluntary associations of people preferably from the same socio-economic background based on the concept of solving common problems through self-help and mutual help. This existing concept of SHG can be rejuvenated with the focus on empowerment of women through agripreneurship.
4. MSME in agriculture: Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in agriculture sector can play a crucial way to promote women’s economic empowerment while fighting against poverty and gender inequity. They have been identified as engines of growth by many governments, and their promotion has led to creation of new jobs for developing countries and to drive innovation and economic dynamism (Drucker, 1985).
5. ICT tools: Nowadays ICT tools have been popularized and have multifarious uses such as medium to inform, aware, educate, dissemination of new technologies, assessment of new technologies, audience poll, platform for discussion among experts and farmers, information on market i.e. market price, market demands, weather forecasting etc. Mobile phone is one of easy assessable ICT tool also being used by most of the rural population.
6. Policy implications: In the current decade number of policies emphasized on entrepreneurship in agriculture like DEDS (Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme.
7. Agri Udaan etc. emphasizing entrepreneurship in agricultural and allied sectors.

 

Barriers of Entrepreneurship Development

1. Most of the farmers, agriculture is largely a means of livelihood. In the lack of adequate information, capital, technology and connectivity with the market, it isdifficult for the uneducated small owner to turn their farming into an enterprise.
2. Before promoting diverse services by self-employed people, there is a need to create consciousness among the farmers, who are the customers, about the benefits of these services.
3. For promotion of services, the present performance of providing free service by the Government organizations should be discontinued. In fact, lots of farmers, mainly the politically associated leaders are of the feeling that the government is accountable for providing extension and technical advisory services to the farmers.
4. The self-employed technicians need regular back up services in the form of technical and business information, contact with the marketing agencies, suppliers of critical inputs and equipment and research stations who are involved in the development of modern technologies.
5. There are several legal restrictions and obstacles, which come in the progress of agri- business, promoted by the People’s Organizations and Cooperatives. Private traders engaged in such business tend to ignore these rules and disturb the fair-trade environment.
6. People’s Organizations often hesitate in taking the risk of making heavy investments and adoption of modern technologies, which in turn affect the profitability. With low profitability and outdated technologies, farmer members lose interest in their own enterprises as well as in that of their leaders.

 

Challenges for Agripreneurship Development in India

There are some important challenges in the process of agripreneurship development which are as follows:

1. Inadequate Infrastructural Facilities: For any kind of development, infrastructure is a pre-requisite. In rural India, the infrastructural facilities are very poor and inadequate particularly with respect to the facilities like transportation, communication, power and marketing networks (Gandhi, Kumar & Marsh, 2000).
2. Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Among People: In India, in many areas very poor entrepreneurial culture hasbeen identified. Lack of education and awareness iscausing a gap in the development of entrepreneurial culture among rural people (Ghosh, 2011).
3. Migration of Skilled and Talented Workforcefrom Rural Area to Urban: People from rural areas are migrating tourban areas because of very poor infrastructure and facilities in rural areas. This migration is creating a gap in the rural talent. It is because of lack of employment, skill, specialization and platforms to use their talent. Even Skilled, educated and trained in some specific areas are seeking jobs with different areas in urban sector. Also, rural youth are attracted to urban lifestyle seeking better career opportunity.
4. Poor Technologies and Equipment: Information helpspeople to explore the opportunities analyzing the situation and make appropriate decisions at right time.
5. Lack of Information: It is a big gap in agripreneurship development. Lack of Information Technology and knowledge on farm equipment and farm enterprise will have an adverse impact on the development of Agripreneurship.
6. Lack of Proper Transportation, warehousing facilities, lackof facility to promote the agri-products, lack of marketing formation, destabilized prices for agriculture products, uneven demand, influence of local mediators and manymore are creating a lot of trouble for farmers in the process of marketing their products.
7. Inadequate Institutional Measure and Government Policies: Though there are number of Govt. policies, the implementation is felt not appropriate because of the problems like corruption and bureaucracy. Because of illiteracy and ignorance, the rural people are unable to getthe information of the policies of the Government and get the benefit. Critically speaking, the support from the Government in agriculture sector is much less than the support extended to industry and service sectors development.
8. Problems in Marketing of Agricultural Products: Production has no value unless it is sold and consumed. The marketing of agricultural products has become difficult for the farmer because of so many problems.
9. High costs of Physical Logistics: Indian villages are poorly connected by any mode of transportation. Farmers are facing problems in moving their produce to nearby markets. They are unable to store their product, because of lack of warehouse facilities. It is becoming a high cost factor for the former to move the product to the market. Not only in the context of transporting the agricultural output, even to get the agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.

 

DISCUSSION

 

The study finds a strong need of agripreneurship from the valid (10 number of) points from the above texts. The study compile information on basic types of agri-entrepreneurship, development of agripreneurship in India alongwith its barriers like skill deficiency. Inadequate infrastructural facility is the top of the various challenges, next comes the lack of entrepreneurial culture among people and migration of skilled and talented workforce from rural area to urban. Dairy and poultry sector have significant contribution to India’s GDP alongwith its pet care market in India show a high CAGR growth during in last 6 years (Chand, 2019) gives a clue of opportunities in this allied sector.

 

RECOMMENDATION

 

1. There is an urgent need for promoting entrepreneurial culture among the people in rural areas and to create a vibrant environment for the rural development identifying promising agricultural and allied areas of business to promote entrepreneurial activity.
2. Providing area specific technical training programmes to develop the required technical competency among the potential entrepreneurs.
3. Promoting the establishment of forum and platform where organization concerned with entrepreneurial development in agriculture.
4. Establishing developmental fund to support the start-up process of agripreneurship to establish agricultural incubation centers.
5. Extending support in terms of providing financial and marketing support Entrepreneurial education and training to the potential rural youth.
6. Improving infrastructural setup in rural areas Identification of important and specific areas of agripreneurship development across the stages of value chain of the agricultural process and designing appropriate strategies for the promotion.
7. Promoting entrepreneurial culture among the people in rural areas and to create a vibrant environment for the development of rural areas.
8. Providing entrepreneurial education and training to the potential rural youth improving the infrastructural facilities in rural areas, so that entrepreneurial activity can be initiated.
9. Identifying the trust areas for agripreneurial development across the stages of value chain of the agricultural process and designing appropriate strategies for the promotion.
10. Identifying promising agriculture allied areas of business to promote entrepreneurial activity.
11. Providing area specific technical training programs to develop the required technical competency among the potential entrepreneurs.
12. Establishing area specific entrepreneurial development organizations tofacilitate focused efforts for the development of identified areas.
13. Establishing development fund, to support the start-up processes of Agripreneurship.
14. Establishing agricultural incubation centers.
15. Extending support in terms of proving financial and marketing support.

 

Why Agriprenurship needs to be Promoted?

 

The need for an entrepreneurial culture in the agricultural sector has been recognized in recent decades (Bergevoet et al., 2004; McElwee & Bosworth, 2010). By developing entrepreneurial and organizational competency, farmers are expected to be able to work in an organized manner and develop sustainable competitive advantages in order to compete successfully in regional, national and international markets. Sustainable development of the agricultural land requires the development of entrepreneurial and organizational competency in farmers. However, the educational processes involved in such development have been insufficiently studied, especially in emerging economies (Díaz-Pichardo, 2011). Even when farmers are innovative and creative, they often lack experiences, access to services, people, or markets, and skills to have realistic chances to succeed as entrepreneurs (Wongtschowski et al. 2013). In addition, agripreneurs are influenced by external, systemic factors, such as economic and social barriers, policies, and regulations (Kahan 2012). While these constraints affect all farmers and especially smallholders, women and youth are affected more. Farmers, thus, need support to • Face multiple existing and emerging challenges in their farming activities • Improve their livelihoods including turning themselves possibly into successful agripreneurs.

 

CONCLUSION

 

The agriculture sector has a large potential to contribute to the national income while at the same time providing direct employment and income to the numerically larger and vulnerable section of the society. Agripreneurship is not only an opportunity but also a necessity for improving the production and profitability in agriculture sector. Agripreneurship Development will help the economy to leverage the identified strengths and to achieve tremendous growth in primary sector and to contribute for rural development. It also helps in achieving balanced economic growth in India. The government has to make policies for focused Agripreneurship Development and establish developmental organizations to support the process. Agripreneurship Development is going to give excellent results at rural level and macro level also. Agripreneurship Development is going to give excellent results at rural level. In this context, it is widely believed that sustainable agribusiness ventures can promote job-led economic growth in rural areas Agri-preneurship in sustainable agriculture like natural farming, organic farming, eco-friendly agriculture etc. has the potential to transform the face of rural India, the prime driver of our economy. So, there is a direct need of making suitable policies and frameworks with action plans for achieving the target of agripreneurship. Agripreneurship is the need of hours to make agriculture a more attractive and profitable venture. There is a great scope for entrepreneurship in agriculture and this potentiality can be tapped only by effective management of agri-elements such as soil, seed, water and market needs. An individual with risk bearing capacity and a quest for latest knowledge in agriculture sector can prove to be a right agripreneurs. The agriculture sector has a large potential to contribute to the national income while at the same time providing direct employment and income to the numerically larger and vulnerable section of the society. Agripreneurship is not only an opportunity but also a necessity for improving the production and profitability in agriculture and allied sector in the country.

REFERENCES-ON REQUEST