Enterprising Agriculture: Market Awareness,Farm Innovation and Value Addition

Abstract

Agriculture is not merely a simple way of living anymore. The primary sector employs more than 30% of the country’s labour force and contributes about 15 % to India’s GDP. Moreover, India being an avid exporter of agricultural production, it also brings in foreign exchange of 35 Billion . Therefore, engagement of farmers is not as simple an activity as we would like to believe. Being a state subject, private sector engagement along with state support would bring in advancement of agricultural cooperation, modernization and digitalization for effective innovation in the field. The agricultural value chain ranging from inputs to marketing has a lot of gaps, which in turn can be utilized as opportunities for entrepreneurial interventions. This book comprises articles and research papers that deal extensively in three key focus areas, which is its unique proposition. A novel collection, it brings together writings on (i) Entrepreneurial Innovations that Impact Agriculture, (ii) Government Policies and Interventions in Entrepreneurship and (iii) Farmers’ Development and Welfare through Agriculture. For ‘Entrepreneurial Innovations that Impact Agriculture’, the authors discuss BOP Model for Satellite data, Vertical and Sustainable Farming, Innovations in Agriculture and Solar-Water Pump, Packaging and Harvest & Post-harvest Wastages. The section on ‘Government Policies and Interventions in Entrepreneurship’ has articles on Agricultural Insurance, Staple Food Pricing, Intellectual Property Rights in agriculture, Corporate Governance, Organic Farming and Women farmers. ‘Farmers’ Development and Welfare through Agriculture’ has authors writing about Infrastructure Investment and Rural Entrepreneurship, Food Processing, Marketing Intelligence, CropInsurance and Market Performances. The articles in this book aim to bring to the reader a heterogenous collection about entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture. The basic Indian way of life, is not just production of crops by marginal farmers, but opens up a gamut of activities that touch upon different avenues in economic being with the hope of developing the primary sector holistically. The book is a humble attempt to encourage readers to think of agriculture as a domain where innovation touches lives and creates enormous impact in multiple dimensions of society