Socio-psychological Constructs and Perceived Economic Variables on Entrepreneurial Behavior among Farmer Producer Organization Members in Kerala: A Comprehensive Analysis

Abstract

In the realm of the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), there is a compelling need for comprehensive scholarly investigation to assess the quantitative relationship between profile characteristics and entrepreneurial behavior of members within Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) to address the existing knowledge gap and contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics that enhance livelihood security. Therefore, the present study focused on examining the relationship between the entrepreneurial behaviour of FPO members and their socio-psychological constructs and perceived economic variables. The study was conducted in Kerala. Districts from Northern, Central, and Southern Kerala having the maximum number of FPOs were selected for the study. Thus, Wayanad from Northern Kerala, Idukki from Central Kerala, and Trivandrum from Southern Kerala were selected for the study. A purposive sampling technique was used for the selection of the FPOs. Two functioning FPOs were purposively selected from the three districts based on discussion with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK). From each selected FPO, 20 farmer members were randomly selected. A total of 40 farmers were surveyed from each district. Thus, a total of 120 farmer members were selected from six Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) located in three districts, resulting in a sample size of 120 respondents. A random sampling technique was used for the selection of the farmer members from each FPOs. Karl Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used in the study to understand the strength and direction of the relationship between the variables. The socio-psychological constructs and perceived economic variables were age, education, annual income, scientific orientation, number of training attended, social participation, group cohesion and credit orientation. The findings demonstrated that there were positive and significant relationships between education, annual income, training, scientific orientation, group cohesion, and creativity with entrepreneurial behavior. The variables age and credit orientation exhibited non-significant correlation coefficients, suggesting no significant relationship with entrepreneurial behavior.