Entrepreneurial behaviour of dairy farmers under Dairy Business School model

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has become the need of the hour with good potential to improve livelihood and generate employment. Most of the small and marginal farmers are dependent on dairy farming and there is a need to enhance the income of the farmers as per government priority to double their income. Hence entrepreneurship development in production, processing, and marketing is essential. So with the aim to inculcate entrepreneurial behaviour among dairy farmers, the Dairy Business School (DBS) was set up on an experimental basis at NDRI, Karnal a premier institute working on Dairy. The present study was conducted in 12 villages in six adjoining districts of NDRI, Karnal. An action research design was used with a sample size of 180 farmers during 2021-22. The data were collected through a pre-tested interview schedule by holding the personal interview. The results of the study revealed that the majority (61.11 %) of the farmers had a medium level of entrepreneurial behaviour. All the thirteen components of entrepreneurial behaviour like risk taking, hope of success, persistence, feedback usage, self confidence, knowledgeability, persuasability, manageability, innovativeness, achievement motivation, decision making ability, cosmopoliteness and profit orientation were at a medium level among dairy farmers. Knowledgeability was ranked first which contributed most to the entrepreneurial behavior of farmers while decision making ability at last.