ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR OF VEGETABLE GROWERS

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1 Agric. Sci. Digest., 33 (2) : 85-91, 2013 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE / indianjournals.com ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR OF VEGETABLE GROWERS R.P. Wankhade, M.A. Sagane and D.M. Mankar Department of Extension Education, P. D. K. V., Akola , India. Received: Accepted: ABSTRACT The present study was carried out in Akola district of Maharashtra State. An exploratory design of social research was used. A sample of 100 vegetable growers as respondents were drawn and information obtained from them was considered for tabulation and analysis of data. Findings revealed that majority of the vegetable growers had medium level in all entrepreneurial traits/attributes. The overall entrepreneurial behavior was found to be of medium level. All the entrepreneurial attributes namely risk taking, hope of success, persusability, manageability, self confidence, knowledgeability, persistence, feedback usage, innovativeness, and achievement motivation. were having significant contribution in entrepreneurial behavior. Price fluctuation in the market, no provision of vegetable crop insurance, exploitation by middleman, non availability of labour at the time of harvesting of vegetables, high input cost, inadequate extension services, insufficient electricity, reducing water table and non availability of quality planting (seedling) material were the major constraints faced by vegetable growers. Key words: Entrepreneurial attributes, Entrepreneurial behaviour, Constraints, Vegetable growerss. INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the predominant occupation in our country. Planned development in agriculture is a national commitment and efforts to expedite its fulfillment require effective exploitation of human as well as material resources. The development of the entrepreneurial culture is therefore, of crucial importance in the progress of nations. The emergence of entrepreneurs in agriculture and allied activities could propel our rural population into self sustaining individuals, who in turn would catalyze development of the economy. The concept of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship has been frequently applied to the industrial sector. Agriculture, on the other hand, has largely been viewed as a traditional activity. For rural folk it is a way of life. Hence farmers were never visualised as business operators and farming as an enterprise. Little has been done to develop farmers into rational business sensing individuals or in other words entrepreneurs. It is now being widely accepted that increase in producti on, producti vity of farms, farm diversification, innovation and development of farmers into self sustaining individuals follow inculcation of the entrepreneurial qualities among farmers. Factors like the liberalisation of the economy have created the right ambience for growth of entrepreneurs in agriculture. It is beyond doubt that olericulture is one of the verdant areas for entrepreneurial activity with a high potential for employment generation. Government of India has identified this sector as a thrust area. Significantly olericulture has been included under Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM). Financial assistance is also available for both large and small scale growers from many institutions. It is therefore important that scientific research looks in to the facets of olericulture entrepreneurship and promotes the vegetable growers. Researchers in the past have dealt with farmers in relation to farm productivity. However, there is very little effort in the area of agricultural entrepreneurship. The country s population is increasing at the rate of 1.8 per cent. Our vegetable requirement will be around 225 million tones by 2020 and 350 millian

2 86 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE DIGEST tonnes by Besides the domestic consumption, India exports sizable quantity of vegetables and processed products and earns foreign exchange. However productivity of different vegetables in our country is comparatively lower than the world s average productivity. In order to meet the demands of growing population as well as the export requirements, the production has to be still increased. Entrepreneurship has now been recognized as a concept, not only for starting industries but also in the development of agriculture and horticulture productions. An entrepreneur growing vegetables can produce more by adopting new practices or ideas, takes rational decision, and coordinates farming operations that would lead to maximum profit. Mishra, (1979) remarked that the socioeconomic, psychological and personal characters or qualities of a man engaged in farming, have already been extensively explored in relation to their contribution to farm development but their entrepreneurial qualities are relatively unexplored. Keeping the above points in mind, the project was taken up in Akola District of Maharashtra State to analyse the entrepreneurial behaviour of vegetable growers with the following objectives 1. To study the entrepreneurial attributes of growers 2. To study the entrepreneurial behaviour of greowers 3. To find out the relati onship between entrepreneurial behaviour and its attributes 4. To identify the constraints faced by the vegetable growers MATERIALS AND METHODS A) Research design used for the study: The present study is based on the exploratory design of social research to measure the entrepreneurial behaviour of vegetable growers. B) Locale of study: The present investigation was carried out in purposively selected Akot and Patur tahasils in Akola district. Five villages each namely Panaj, Akoli jahangir, Ambashi, and Akot in Akot tahasil and Bellora khurd, Shirla, Wadegaon, Alegaon and Patur in Patur tahasil of Akola district were randomly selected for the study. C) Selection of farmers as respondents: Total ten vegetable growers who had experienced in vegetable farming of last three years were randomly selected from each village, which comprised a sample of 100 respondents. D): Measurement of entrepreneurial attributes: Entrepreneurial attributes of vegetable growers was measured with the help of scale developed by Anonymous (1981) with slight modification for the purpose of project. The scale comprises of sub scales of ten entrepreneurial attributes, namely risk taking, hope of success, persusability, manageability, self confidence, knowledgeability, persistence, feedback usage, innovativeness, and achievement motivation. Each subscale of ten entrepreneurial attributes consists of five statements. Thus in all, the entrepreneurial attributes self assessment scale had total 50 statements. It was measured on five point continuum such as Utmost important, Most important, Somewhat important, Less Important and Not important with weightage of 5,4,3,2 and 1.The maximum and minimum score ranged between 1 to 250 on ten attributes whereas it is ranged between 1 to 25 on each sub scale, respectively. Based on scores obtained under each sub scale for each attribute, the vegetable growers were grouped into three categories ranging from low to high by using the mean and standard deviation scores as measures of check. E) Entrepreneurial behaviour Operational definition: Entrepreneurial behaviour of vegetable growers is operationally defined as cumulative outcome of ten components/attributes namely risk taking, hope of success, persusability, manageability, self confidence, knowledgeability, persistence, feedback usage, innovativeness, and achievement motivation. M easurement of entrepreneurial behaviour: Entrepreneuri al behaviour was measured with the help of entrepreneurial behaviour index by addition of scores of ten entrepreneurial attributes namely risk taking, hope of success, persusability, manageability, self confidence, knowledgeability, persistence, feedback usage, innovativeness, and achievement motivation. The total obtained score was converted into the entrepreneurial behaviour index. The minimum and maximum score ranged between 1 and 250 respectively.

3 The entrepreneurial behaviour index was calculated by the following formula:- Entrepreneurial Sum of obtained score on ten entrepreneurial attributes behaviour index = X 100 (EBI) Entrepreneurial behaviour levels Maximum obtainable score on ten entrepreneurial attributes Entrepreneurial behaviour Index range Low Up to Medium to High Above Mean EBI SD On the basis of Mean and SD of the distribution, the respondents were categorised into three categories namely low, medium and high by using mean and standard deviation as below. F) C onstraints faced by the vegetable growers: Constraints refer to the difficulties faced by vegetable growers in production and management aspects of vegetable production. Difficulties expressed by the oleripreneurs were listed out. The frequency and percentages of each constraint were worked out for interpretation. G) Collection and analysis of data: The interview schedule was constructed in accordance with the study objectives and it was used for data collection. The respondents were contacted either at farm or home and the information in the interview schedule was collected. The information obtained from 100 vegetable growers was taken for analysis. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION I) Profile of respondents /Entrepreneurial attribute: In order to have an in-depth understanding of the entrepreneurial behaviour, the data with respect to various entrepreneurial attributes of the respondents have been furnished in Table 1. i. Risk taking: More than three fourth (77.00%) of respondents were moderate risk takers. About 18 per cent of the respondents were low risk takers whereas 15 per cent of respondents were high risk takers. Past studies of McCelland (1961), Devi (1986) and Murali (1997) have clearly shown that entrepreneurs are calculative and moderate risk takers as against the myth that entrepreneurs are high risk takers. The studies conducted by Timmons (1998), Yadav (1998), Aiyaduari (1999) and Taneja Vol. 33, No. 2, and Gupta (2001), who reported that for any enterprise to succeed an entrepreneur must possess risk taking capacity, but at moderate level. ii. H ope of success: Two third (66.00%) of respondents had medium level of hope of success. While per cent of respondents had high level, per cent had low level of hope of success. The study conducted by Palmurugan et al. (2008) has clearly indicated that entrepreneurs have medium to high hope of success than fear of failure. iii. Persuasability: The overall analysis of data revealed that per cent of respondents scored medium, whereas low and high level of persuasability scored by and per cent of respondents respectively. As the entrepreneur could not express themselves very convincingly to others, resulting in gaining less profit after marketing products iv. Manageability: Majority (62.00%) of respondents had medium level of manageability. About per cent of the respondents belonged to low manageability category. Very few respondents (06.00%) had observed in high level management category. It could be inferred that only per cent of respondents were found having high level of manageability, focusing that the respondents lacked the basic managerial skills for running the enterprise. They were required to learn to delegate some responsibilities to others is a very important attribute of successful entrepreneur. This finding is in conformity with the findings of Aiyadurai (1999) who emphasi zed the management skill of entrepreneurs and stressed that training on management skills must be i mparted in entrepreneurship training programme. v. Self confidence: It is one of the major attributes which an entrepreneur must possess for running enterprise. It could be seen from the data in Table 1 that nearly three fourth (74.00%) per cent of the respondents were reported in medium confidence level, followed by per cent respondents who had low level of self confidence. Very few respondents (08.00%) had observed in high category of self confidence. The probable reason might be for such findings might be that agricultural enterprise is totally dependent on natural environment, further there is

4 88 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE DIGEST TABLE1: Distribution of the respondents according to their entrepreneurial attribute. EntrepreneurialAttribute Frequency(n= 100) Percentage Mean SD Risk taking Low (Upto 17) Medium (18 to 22) High (Above 22) Hope of Success Low (Upto 18) Medium (19 to 23) High (Above 23) Self Confidence Low (Upto 17) Medium (18 to 22) High (Above 22) Innovativeness Low (Upto 18) Medium (18 to 22) High (Above 22) Knowledgeability Low (Upto 17) Medium (18 to 22) High (Above 22) Manageability Low (Upto 18) Medium (19 to 23) High (Above 23) Persusability Low (Upto 18) Medium (19 to 22) High (Above 22) Achievement motivation Low (Upto 16) Medium (17 to 21) High (Above 21) Persistence Low (Upto 17) Medium (18 to 22) High (Above 22) Feedback usage Low (Upto 16) Medium (17 to 21) High (Above 21) no control of the producer on market prices of their agricultural produce. The study conducted by Palmurugan et al. (2008) observed that majority of entrepreneurs had medium to high level of self confidence. vi. Kowledgeability: Findings with regards to kowledgeability, it was observed that above two third of the respondents (69.00 %) were in medium category of knowledge about technical and management aspects of their venture. High level of knowledgeability was found in per cent followed by per cent respondents who had low level of knowledgeability. They also expressed an urge to gain good knowledge of market and also production technology is most important before starting their enterprise and tended to produce only those vegetables which were found to consumer acceptance. Entrepreneurship in vegetable cultivation required a keen sense of the market, exploitation of opportuniti es and willi ngness to adapt to environment for which knowledge is essential. Study done by Aiyadurai (1999) also suggested that an entrepreneur must be knowledgeable about his/her enterprise for better results.

5 Vol. 33, No. 2, TABLE 2: Distribution of respondents according to their overall entrepreneurial behaviour. Entrepreneurial Entrepreneurial behaviour Index range Respondentsn= 100 behaviour levels Numbers Percentage Low Up to Medium to High Above Mean EBI SD vii. Persistence: Majority (72.00%) of respondents had medium level of persistence. While per cent of respondents had low level, per cent had high level of persistence. Past studies guide that entrepreneur tend to persist in the face of difficulties or obstacles. Failure does not easily discourage them; rather they carry on with more enthusiasm and selfconfidence. The study conducted by Palmurugan et al. (2008) has found that entrepreneurs have medium to high level of persistence. viii. Feedback usage: The ability to seek and use feedback on one s performance and decisions is an important quality of entrepreneurs. Medium level of feedback usage was found among majority (75.00%) of respondents followed by high (14.00%) and low (11.00%) levels of feedback usage. The study conducted by Palmurugan et al. (2008) has clearly indicated that entrepreneurs have medium to high level of feedback usage. ix. Innovativeness: Seethalakshami (1999), descri bed innovati veness as an important entrepreneurial attributes. It could be seen that majority (71.00%) of the respondents belonged to moderate degree of innovativeness followed by per cent respondents in high category and per cent of them were observed in the low category of innovativeness. It could be inferred that majority (91.00%) of the respondents had medium to high level of innovativeness. This might be due to mass media exposure and high literacy rate. It is also true that innovatively oriented farmers always incline to use innovative methods in farming and have a favourable perception towards innovations, which leads vegetable growers to develop their entrepreneurial behaviour. x. Achievement motivation: More than three fourth (78.00%) of the respondents were observed in medium category of achievement motivation followed by per cent of them were observed in high category of achievement motivation and only per cent of respondents who were in low category of achievement motivation. It could be indicated that all human beings always try to gain something more and more in life. II) Entrepreneurial behaviour: Data regarding present entrepreneurial behaviour level of the respondents in Table 2 revealed that per cent of the respondents had medium entrepreneurial behaviour index, while (23.00%) and (20.00%) respondents high and low entrepreneurial behavior index respectively. The overall entrepreneurial behaviour index of respondents was indicating their medium entrepreneurial behaviour. It could be inferred that per cent of the respondents possessed medium to high level of entrepreneurial behavior. It could be discerned from these results, by and large, the vegetable growers has fairly good entrepreneurial behaviour. This might be due to their better score on almost all dimensions/attributes namely risk taking, hope of success, persusability, manageability, self confidence, knowledgeability, persistence, feedback usage, innovativeness, and achievement motivation selected to measure entrepreneurial behaviour. Secondly, such better TABLE 3: Relationship between entrepreneurial behaviour and its attributes Entrepreneurial attributes r value Risk taking ** Hope of success ** Self confidence ** Innovativeness ** Knowledgeability ** Manageability ** Persusability ** Achievement motivation ** Persistence ** Feedback usage ** ** Significant at 0.01 level of probability

6 90 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE DIGEST TABLE 4: Constraints faced by vegetable growers with regards to vegetable farming management. Constraints Frequency (n= 100) Percentage Price fluctuation in the market Non availability of labour at harvesting of crop Exploitation by middleman No provision of vegetable crop insurance Inadequate extension services Decreasing water table Insufficient electricity High input costs Lack of cooperatives Insufficient and untimely credit facility Lack of cold storage and processing facility Lack of technical knowledge Lack of transport facility Non availability of quality planting material score on almost all the dimensions of the vegetable growers might have helped them in managing their enterprises more efficiently and profitably. When these findings looked in the context of the vegetable production activities lead to conclude that vegetable growers might have been efficiently managing the operations related to cultivation and marketing of the produce. Coefficients of correlation: Data with regards to relationship of vegetable growers have been presented in Table 3. From this table; it is observed that all the entrepreneurial attributes were positively and significantly related with their entrepreneurial behaviour. This means these attributes/dimensions exert their influence on entrepreneurial behavior in order of innovativeness, manageability, self confidence, hope of success, achievement motivation, knowledgeability, risk taking, feedback usage, persistence and persusability. III) Constraints faced by vegetable growers with regards to vegetable farming management Careful examination of the results presented in Table-4 revealed that, hundred per cent vegetable growers expressed the major constraints such as price fluctuation in the market and no provision of insurance/risk coverage to the vegetable crops. The major constraints expressed by vegetable growers were: exploitation by middleman (85.00%), non availability of labour at the time of harvesting of vegetable crops (77.00%), high input cost (71.00%), inadequate extension services (67.00%) insufficient electricity (63.00%), reducing water table (53.00%) and non availability of quality planting (seedling) material (50.00%). In addition to this, other constraints were lack of technical knowledge (43%), lack of vegetable grower s cooperatives (41.00%), insufficient and untimely credit facility (37.00%), lack of transport facility (33.00%) and lack of cold storage and processing facility (30.00%). It may be therefore concluded that inspite of fairly good entrepreneurial behaviour of the vegetable growers, they faced various constraints. Efforts to overcome these constraints will certainly be useful for maximizing the entrepreneurship development in olericulture in the region of the study. CONCLUSIONS Findings of the study clearly revealed that majority of the respondents were found in medium level with respect to all the main entrepreneurial attributes of vegetable growers which indicate the importance and contribution of these entrepreneurial attri butes in achievi ng entrepreneurship especially among vegetable growers. Entrepreneurship amongst vegetable growers was found to be of medium level in the region of study. Price fluctuation in the market, no provision of vegetable crop insurance exploitation by middleman, non availability of labour at the time of harvesting of vegetable crops, high input cost (71.00%), inadequate extension services (67.00%) insufficient electricity, decreasing water table

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