Contributing Factors for the Agricultural Graduates Converted as Successful Agri-preneurs

Abstract

Agricultural education has now to evolve in tune with fast changing national and international scenario. The agricultural graduates are required to possess professional capabilities to deal with the concerns of sustainable development. Agri-business comprises of organizations and enterprises which in some way contribute for value and supply chain elements such as production, processing, marketing, packaging, transportation and wholesale and retail trade. Bringing as many agricultural graduates in the field of entrepreneurship as agri-preneurs is the challenging task of the policy makers in the present situation. Entrepreneurship in Agriculture is a strategic development intervention that has the potential to accelerate the development process. Agri-preneurship is greatly influenced mainly by the economic situation, education and culture. Integration of entrepreneurship education into the curriculum is imperative so as to produce graduates who would be self-employed in the face of biting economic quagmire where the government cannot provide employment for every graduate.  A total of ten (10) agri-preneurs who are the alumni of State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states completed their under graduation or post graduation and converted as successful agri-preneurs in different agriculture and allied activities were selected as sample. Exploratory research design was adopted in the study to obtain pertinent and information of the respondents. The case study method used for the documentation of agriculture graduates as successful agri-preneurs. Semi-structured interview schedule was designed for data collection. The factors were broadly divided into three categories viz., personal factors, financial factors, and environmental factors. The respondents were asked to rank the factors for each category separately. By using the Garrett’s ranking technique, the important factors which lead to become successful agri-preneurs were determined. Among personal factors work experience, passion, Communication and Marketing Skills; among financial factors Capital, Financial Resource; among environmental factors Market Demand, Man Power were found to be more significant factors influencing the establishment and for further growth of business. Hence there is a need to orient the agricultural graduates towards those factors and inculcate such paradigms in their academic environment for converting agricultural graduates as successful agri-preneurs.