Policy and Institutional Support for Agri- Entrepreneurship Development in India: A Review

Abstract

As per NSSO data, 40% of the farmers feel that they would quit agriculture, if given a chance. The possible reason may be that agriculture per se is not that remunerative as the average income of Indian farmer has gone up only 20-30 times since 1970’s to 2015 whereas for other professions like school teachers, government employees and college professors it has risen 280-320 times, 120-150 times and 150-170 times, respectively. Only few farmers with appropriate business acumen are able to shift the focus from subsistence based and are getting profit owing to their entrepreneurial qualities. There is hardly proper appreciation of farmers as actors in the innovation system, little information provided about different sources of knowledge involved, or the flow of knowledge and little attention to long-term impacts on livelihoods. Extending entrepreneurial opportunities was prioritized in the Twelfth Plan which envisages that identification of rural enterprises and supporting their enterprises through setting up of common facility centres to ensure all important services including technology and skill training, entrepreneurship training, market information, access to institutionalized credit, power and other infrastructure and related facilities are readily provided. It was also emphasized in the roadmap of the Central Government Agenda to attain agricultural growth rate of 4%. The paper is an effort to review the institutional arrangements as well as policy advocacy available for Indian farmers to develop farm level entrepreneurship.