AatmaNirbharta through Agripreneurship
Context
- Agriculture remains one of the key sectors of the Indian economy, accounting for around 18-20 percent share in the gross domestic product. Approximately, 70 percent of the rural population depends on agriculture and allied sectors for their livelihood.
- Relatively poorer infrastructural facilities are one of the key push factors, while better job opportunities in urban areas is one of the important pull factors contributing to the growing rural-urban migration.
- In this backdrop, one of the options which mitigates the burden on agriculture, while at the same time arrests rural-urban migration, is agripreneurship i.e. entrepreneurship in agriculture and its allied sectors.
Significance of Agripreneurship
- Agripreneurship is the profitable confluence of agriculture and entrepreneurship brought in by the people with innovative ideas to develop the existing practices for better productivity as well as establishment of new ventures in agriculture and allied sectors.
- Developing entrepreneurs in agriculture can solve problems by
- reducing the burden of agriculture;
- generating employment opportunities for rural youth;
- controlling migration from rural to urban areas;
- increasing national income;
- supporting industrial development in rural areas;
- reducing the pressure on urban cities.
- Agripreneurship spans across various sub sectors, viz. food processing, fisheries, tissue culture, apiary, seed processing, smart agri-tech provisioning, soil testing, vermi-compost, etc.
Women in Agripreneurship
- In recent years, the growth of start-ups and new-generation enterprises in India has been manifold. However, the number of women participating in the entrepreneurship activities has been relatively less, when compared to the number of their men counterparts.
- Similarly, World Bank’s India Development Report 2018 has revealed that India has one of the lowest female participation in the workforce with a rank of 120 out of 131 countries.
- There is an urgent need to design the institutional strategies to promote the ecosystem for promoting women entrepreneurship in general and women agripreneurship in particular, which is essential for the integrated development of India.
Challenges
- One of the major challenges in promoting entrepreneurship is the low literacy level of rural folks.
- The poor and small/marginal farmers are unable to access the modern infrastructure and technology for better productivity and ease of work.
- Rural marketers have much less threat bearing capability because of loss of economic sources and outside support. Even though various developmental activities are going on, the development of technologies is very slow as compared to developed nations like USA and European countries.
- Management troubles like i) lack of technological dissemination, ii) legal formalities, iii) lack of technical understanding, iv) poor quality control are the other bottlenecks in the growth of agripreneurship.
Policies and Programmes for Promoting Agripreneurship
- RKVY-RAFTAAR:
- The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare revised the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana in 2017 as Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR).
- The scheme aims at making farming a remunerative economic activity. For this purpose, the scheme provides for financial support and nurtures the incubation ecosystem by strengthening farmers’ efforts, risk mitigation, focus on development and creation of pre and post harvest infrastructure, promoting agripreneurship and innovations.
- RKVY-RAFTAAR includes agripreneurship orientation, with a stipend for the entrepreneur; seed stage funding and funding for incubatees.
- PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme:
- The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme to provide financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises.
- The scheme aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual microenterprises in the unorganised segment of the food processing industry and promote formalisation of the sector.
- Agriculture Infrastructure Fund:
- As a part of the AatmaNirbhar Bharat Package, an Agriculture Infrastructure Fund was launched in 2020 as a dedicated Central Government scheme for providing medium to long term credit facility for investment in creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets.
- The sanctioned infrastructure projects include warehouses, assaying units, primary processing units, custom hiring centres, sorting and grading units, cold store and cold chain projects, bio-stimulant manufacturing facilities, seed processing units, etc.
- Udyam Portal:
- Enterprises with an investment on plant and machinery or equipment of up to Rs. 50 crore and a turnover of Rs. 250 crore can register on the Udyam registration portal of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), and avail benefits of Priority Sector Lending of banks and also those of programmes and schemes of the Ministry of MSME.
- Gramodyog Vikas Yojana:
- Gramodyog Vikas Yojana of the Ministry of MSME is an artisan centric programme implemented with the aim of revival of traditional and inherent skills of rural artisans in village industries.
- The scheme has a special focus on the Agro Based and Food Processing Industry.
Way Ahead
- There is an urgent need for promoting entrepreneurial culture among people in the country. Providing area-specific technical training programmes may help to develop the technical competence of potential entrepreneurs. Such initiatives will certainly need to be supplemented by adequate infrastructural facilities.
- The financial institutions and banks which assure prompt financial security to entrepreneurs must create unique cells for providing easy finance to rural entrepreneurs.
- The rural entrepreneurs need to be provided finance at concessional interest and easy repayment terms. The burdensome sanctioning procedures should be minimised.
- Proper supply of scarce raw materials should be made on a priority basis. A subsidy could also be offered to make the products manufactured by rural entrepreneurs cost competitive and remunerative.
- Voluntary organisations can arrange training programmes to provide them stimulation, counselling and assistance.
- Proper encouragement and assistance should be provided to rural entrepreneurs for setting up marketing co-operatives.
- An important ingredient for the success of any development strategy is the awareness it generates amongst all stakeholders. For this purpose, a converging approach is required amongst the initiatives being taken by the various Ministries/Departments of the Central Government, along with those of the state governments.
- A convergence of their approach would go a long way in making the agripreneurs self-reliant and through them make the country AatmaNirbhar.
Tag:Agriculture, Economy
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