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Attitude of agricultural students towards agricultural entrepreneurship

Article in Madras Agricultural Journal · March 2021

DOI: 10.29321/MAJ.10.000489

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Madras Agric. J., 2020; https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.000489

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Attitude of Agricultural Students Towards Agricultural Entrepreneurship
Jayasudha J1 and Shantha Sheela M2
1
Extension and Communication, Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology,
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003 .
2
Agricultural Extension, Directorate of AgriBusiness Development, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003.

ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurs are people who realize new opportunities and channelize

effort in the proper direction. Now a days the employment opportunities
for agricultural professionals in the public sector are shrinking. Rising
unemployment among agricultural graduates and market forces made
entrepreneurship a best career for the students. To create self-employment
opportunities for unemployed agricultural graduates, entrepreneurship is
Received : 13th March, 2021 widely regarded as an integral player. Career aspirations and opportunities
Revised : 19th March, 2021
for agriculture students are usually with in private and public sector jobs.
Initiation to become an entrepreneur or to start up agri business among the
Revised : 24th March, 2021 student community is rare. Inspite of the blooming opportunities available in
Accepted : 30th March, 2021 agri entrepreneurship sector, students may be reluctant to start agri ventures
due to some constraints or hesitations. Thus, this study was carried out
primarily to understand the attitude of students towards agripreneurship and
factors affecting the motivation of students to become an agripreneur among
the final year students of B.Sc (Agri) in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
Coimbatore campus. This study showed that majority of the students had a
favorable attitude towards agricultural entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Agripreneurs ; Opportunities; Attitude; Employment.

INTRODUCTION poultry, dairy, fishery, horticulture, food processing

, value addition, nursery development, polyhouse
Entrepreneur is one who is endowed with more
etc. The government of India is also supporting
than average capacities in the task of organizing and
these startups with programs like Skill India, Start
coordinating the factors of production, i.e. land, labor
Up India, Micro Units Development & Refinance
capital and enterprises. Entrepreneur is a person
Agency Ltd to Agriclinics and Agri Business Centres
of telescopic faculty drive and talent who perceives
scheme and Udaan to help budding entrepreneurs
business opportunities and promptly seizes them for
to start and scale new ventures. However only
exploitation. Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship
few a students wanted to become entrepreneurs.
are arguably the pillars on which economic health of
Career planning is most important in everyones
societies was built. Their role has been highlighted
life. It depends on so many factors to decide their
in opportunity creation through new ventures and
goal. A study by Mehta et al. (2011) revealed that
maintenance of existing ones (Evans, 1942).India
for agriculture collegian civil/ administrative jobs
has the third- largest pool of technical and scientific
remained the first choice followed by educational
personnel in the world. However, we cannot utilize
and research institutional jobs, state government
its full potential and on the other hand, there is
jobs, agro-based public sector, agro-based private
surplus technical manpower that are unemployed.
sector and self-employment, while, general jobs
This large pool of technical human resources can
and farming were the least preferred job areas.
be best utilized for developing small-scale industries
Attitudes are defined by cognitive psychology as the
in the hi-tech areas using improved technologies
predisposition to respond in a generally favorable or
and scientific methods of production. There are so
unfavorable manner concerning the object of the
many agricultural graduates passing from different
attitude. The attitudinal approach has been utilized
universities all over India. However there is a
in many fields including evaluating entrepreneurship
corresponding lack of employment opportunities for
education. It revealed the mindset of the students
agricultural professionals in the public sector. For
towards agricultural entrepreneurship whether they
this unemployment , agricultural entrepreneurship is
are positive or negative. Hence the present study
a golden opportunity for them to take it as a career.
has been attempted with objectives to
There are scope in establishing enterprises such as
*Corresponding author’s e-mail: [email protected] 108 | 1-3 | 119
 1. Study the demographic characteristic of the developed in google form had been sent to all the
students and to students and 80 had responded.
2. Study the attitude of agricultural students For measuring the attitude, the attitude scale
towards agricultural entrepreneurship. developed by Chamela Bai (2016) was used with
slight modification based on the study. The scale
MATERIAL AND METHODS consists of 14 statements. To measure the attitude
Sampling and Sampling method: of agriculture graduates towards agripreneurship, a
five-point continuum was used. The scores assigned
A total of 130 final year B.Sc. (Agriculture) of for the positive statements were, 5 for strongly agree,
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 4 for agree, 3 for uncertain, 2 for disagree and 1
were purposively selected for the study. Because for strongly disagree. The scoring for the negative
they had undergone entrepreneurship courses and statement was reverse..
had agroindustry internship programmes during
their studies. Moreover, they had better knowledge The collected data were analyzed using statistical
of entrepreneurship and they were in the stage tools viz percentage method, mean score to study
to decide their career. The interview schedule the demographic characteristics and attitude of the
students.
Table 1. Demographic characteristic of the students (n =80)

Variable Category No %
Gender Male 28 35.0
Female 52 65.0
Locality Rural 40 50.0
Semi urban 21 26.2
Urban 19 23.8
Parents occupation Business 12 15.0
Teacher 13 16.3
Civil servant 8 10.0
Farmer 38 47.5
Others 9 11.2
Annual family income Less than 1 lakh 53 66.2
Between 1 lakh to 2 lakhs. 7 8.80
Between 2 lakhs to 3 lakhs. 2 2.50
Above 3 lakhs. 18 22.5
Family type Nuclear family 69 86.3
Joint family 11 13.7
Size of land holding Land less 19 23.8
Marginal 32 40.0
Small 19 23.8
Medium 6 7.40
Big 4 5.00
Academic perfomance (OGPA ) 6.0 – 7.0 0 0.00
7.1 – 8.0 32 40.0
8.1 – 9.0 48 60.0
9.1 – 10.0 0 0.00
Entrepreneurship workshop Yes 30 37.5
No 50 62.5

108 | 1-3 | 120

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION was less than one lakh (66.2%), so the respondents
perceived that their main constraints were the
Demographic characteristic of the students :
financial investment in the business. Majority of
It was observed from the Table. 1, that majority them were from the family (86.3%). This also might
of the student respondents were female (65.0%). be a reason that respondents fear that if they fail,
Generally the risk-taking ability was more in males nobody in their family would support financially and
compared to females. Half of the respondents came psychologically.
from a rural background (50.0%) which made them
Mostly the respondent’s parents had marginal
more interest towards agripreneurship and they had
size of land holding (40.0%) and this revealed
basic knowledge about agriculture. Nearly half of the
that investment on land for agristartups might be
respondents had parents predominant occupation
reduced. Sixty percent of the students had OGPA
as farming (47.5%) followed by teaching profession
ranged between 8.1 to 9.0 and three fourths of
(16.3%).
the students had not undergone entrepreneurship
About three fourth of the parents annual income workshop (62.5%).

Table 2. Attitude of agricultural students towards agripreneurs (n=80)

Statements Mean Score Rank

Agricultural graduates have better conditions for entrepreneurship compared with other
4.42 I
graduates.
Agricultural graduates have necessary skills for entrepreneurship 4.41 II
There is potential for the agricultural based entrepreneurship in India 4.38 III
Lack of employment oppor tunities in the public sector has doubled necessity of
4.26 IV
entrepreneurship
Agricultural entrepreneurship requires a measured vision and mission. 4.21 V
Agricultural entrepreneurship is the right career choice for the younger generation 4.20 VI
An agri-clinic or agri-business training can create confidence to accept agricultural
4.16 VII
entrepreneurship as a profession
Agricultural entrepreneurship should be given top priority for development 4.07 VIII
Agricultural entrepreneurship does not help in developing good personality 3.90 IX
Agricultural graduate can earn more than other professional graduates 3.73 X
Agricultural entrepreneurship doesn’t provide good employment opportunity 3.66 XI
Agricultural entrepreneurship has easy market access. 3.52 XII
Agricultural entrepreneurship does not provide maximum net profit and income. 3.48 XIII
Entrepreneurship in agriculture is more difficult than other sectors. 2.67 XIV

The Mean score was calculated by dividing the (4.20). Their confidence level would be increased by
total scores given by all the respondents to the attending an agri – clinic or agri-business training
statement by the total number of respondents. (4.16). Some of the respondents gave negative
Based on the mean score value, the ranking opinion such as agricultural entrepreneurship does
was given. Most of the student respondents had not help in developing a good personality (3.90),
expressed that agricultural graduates had better doesn’t provide revenue opportunity (3.66) and
conditions for entrepreneurship compared with entrepreneurship in agriculture was more difficult
other graduates (4.42) and they had knowledge than other sectors (2.67).
on the basics of agriculture, processing and Table 3. Distribution of agriculture graduates based
necessary skills for entrepreneurship (4.41). on their attitude towards agripreneurs
They also stated that there was a huge potential (n=80)
for the agricultural- based enterprises in India
(4.38) and the lack of employment opportunities Category No %
in the public sector has doubled the necessity of Less favourable (Below 52.94 scores) 12 15.0
entrepreneurship (4.26). They also revealed that
agricultural entrepreneurship requires a measured Favourable (From 52.94 – 64.4 scores) 53 66.3
vision and mission (4.21) and agripreneurship was More favourable (Above 64.4 score) 15 18.7
the right career choice for the younger generation

108 | 1-3 | 121

 From the above Table 3, it was observed that the agripreneurship. Because agricultural graduates
majority of the students had a favourable attitude had better conditions for entrepreneurship when
towards agricultural entrepreneurship (66.3%) compared to other graduates, there were lots of
whereas only some of the students (18.7%) had potential for the agricultural-based entrepreneurship
a more favorable attitude towards agricultural in India and also lack of employment opportunities
entrepreneurship followed by 15.00 per cent in the public sector had doubled the necessity for
of students had less favorable attitude towards entrepreneurship. As per the statement, self-help
agricultural entrepreneurship. This finding is in is the best help : entrepreneurship was the best
line with the findings of Chamela Bai (2016) who solution for unemployment in the country. Though
stated that 72.00 per cent of the male students and entrepreneurship was a blooming opportunity in
female (60.0%) among female agriculture graduates agriculture, some risks and uncertainity accustomed
had favourable attitude towards agricultural to starting up in agribusiness. Moreover it is
entrepreneurship, whereas only 3.00 per cent necessary that the government should impose some
male agriculture graduates and 9.00 per cent policies to protect young entrepreneurs from the
female agriculture graduates had most favourable risk of business losses, especially for on-farm
attitude and equal percentage of male and female businesses. It may provide belief and protection
agricultural graduates (22.00%) had less favourable to overcome their constraints. It has been better
attitude towards agricultural entrepreneurship. and proven that those who had undergone various
Also, Dilip Kumar (2017) in his study revealed entrepreneurship programmes and hands-on
that out of the overall level of attitude towards workshops by agribusiness practitioners during the
agricultural entrepreneurship of the respondents, college days might have increased their confidence
the majority of the respondents (57.73%) had a to become entrepreneurs.
moderately favourable attitude towards agricultural
entrepreneurship, followed by 29.56 per cent who
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This study concluded that the majority of the
agricultural students had a favorable attitude towards

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