Harnessing Coconut Farming: Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Growers in Hassan District, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Entrepreneurial behavior is defined as identifying possibilities and putting good ideas into action. The coconut palm, often called ‘Kalpavriksha’ or the ‘tree of heaven,’ is revered for its versatility. The present study adopted an ex-post-facto research design. Hassan district was purposively selected for the study and within the district, three taluks viz. Arsikere, Channarayapatna, and Arkalgud were purposively chosen and from each taluk, three villages were randomly selected. The study included a total of 90 coconut growers, with five small and five big farmers chosen from each village using a simple random sampling method. The results pertaining to the entrepreneurial behaviour of coconut growers showed that 33.33 per cent of the respondents exhibited low entrepreneurial behavior, while more than one-third (34.44 %) fell into the medium category with Mean = 144.49 and SD = 11.47. The results in comparative analysis of entrepreneurial behaviour dimensions among small and large coconut growers showed that, key dimensions such as innovativeness, risk orientation, leadership ability and entrepreneurial skill showed that, the significant differences at the 1per cent level. Dimensions such as decision-making ability and market perception are significant at the 5 per cent level.