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Agripreneurship- Issues and Opportunities with a Simple Case Study for Better
Handling and Post-Harvest Management of Fruits and Vegetables

Conference Paper · March 2015

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Agripreneurship- Issues and opportunities with a simple case study for better handling and post-
harvest management of fruits and vegetables.

*Ramesh Babu Damarla

Assistant Professor, Department of Business Management,

SR Engineering college, Warangal.

Sowmith Kumar P

Student of Master of Technology Management,

SR Engineering College, Warangal.

*corresponding author

ABSTRACT

A shift from agriculture to agribusiness is an essential pathway to bring change or make

revolution in Indian agriculture and to make more attractive and profitable venture.
Agripreneurship has the potential to contribute to a range of social and economic
development such as employment generation, poverty reduction and improvements in
nutrition, health and overall food security in the national economy. Agripreneurship has
got power to generate growth, diversifying income, providing widespread employment and
entrepreneurial opportunities in rural areas. This paper mainly focuses on basic concepts
of agripreneurship, entrepreneurship skills and needs of agripreneurship development
along with opportunities in this area. As Farmers are back-bone of our country there
comes a need to develop some agripreneurs in current scenario.

Key words- Agripreneurship, Entrepreneurship Skills, Employment Generation, post

harvest management, fruits and vegetables, case study.

INTRODUCTION

Agriculture remains a key sector of the Indian economy accounting for 13.2 per cent share
in the gross domestic product (GDP) and about 13 per cent of the total export earnings.
Agriculture and allied sectors are considered to be mainstay of the Indian economy because
these are important sources of raw materials for industries and they demands for many
industrial products particularly fertilizers, pesticides, agriculture implements and a variety
of consumer goods. Due to the changing socio, economic, political, environmental and
cultural dimensions over the world, farmers’ and nations’ options for survival and for
sustainably ensuring success in changing their respective economic environments has
become increasingly critical. It is also worth noting that the emergence of the free market
economies globally has resulted in the development of a new spirit of enterprise
“Agripreneurship” and the increased individual need for responsibility for running their
own businesses. . Entrepreneurship is connected with finding ways and means to create and
develop a profitable agri business. In the face of growing unemployment and poverty in
rural areas and slow growth of agriculture there is need of entrepreneurship in agriculture
and related areas like food processing and food storage and handling units for more
productivity and profitability of agriculture.

Indian economy is basically agrarian economy. In India, 52% of total land is cultivable as
against 11% in the world. In agriculture sector fruits and vegetables contribute a major
part next to grain production. India's diverse climate ensures availability of all varieties of
fresh fruits & vegetables. It ranks second in fruits and vegetables production in the world,
after China. As per National Horticulture Database published by National Horticulture
Board, during 2012-13 India produced 81.285 million metric tonnes of fruits and 162.19
million metric tonnes of vegetables. The area under cultivation of fruits stood at 6.98
million hectares while vegetables were cultivated at 9.21 million hectares.

India is the largest producer of ginger and okra amongst vegetables and ranks second in
production of potatoes, onions, cauliflowers, brinjal, Cabbages, etc. Amongst fruits, the
country ranks first in production of Bananas (22.04%), Papayas (40.74%), Mangoes
(including mangos teens, and guavas)(32.65%)..

Overall postharvest losses of Fruits and Vegetables(F & V’s) are 30 to 40%. The major
causes of these losses of improper post-harvest handling and shortage of cold chain
facilities in the country. In the current work, an effort is made to educate the vendors to
use simple techniques of F&V’s handling and transportation using , hygienic plastic crates.
The Government of India is also providing subsidies to the cold store owners, retail
operators and farmers for purchase of Plastic crates and plastic storage bulk containers.

Today india has gote infrastructure of advanced storage and handling facilities for long
term preservation of fruits and vegetables with the promotional steps taken by
Government of India, Department of Agriculture and Food processing for financial
assistance( Ramesh Babu.2014).

ENTREPRENEUR’S QUALITIES FOR AGRIPRENEURSHIP

An entrepreneur is an individual who identifies new opportunities and takes the risk to
pursue it. He needs to develop these abilities, managing productivity and seeking out new
markets. There are seven characteristics of a successful farm and farmer (1) profitable
production seemed to be associated with continuous evaluation of production, incomes and
expenditures (2) constant development of cognitive and professional skills i.e. Continual
Professional Development (CPD) (3)They benefit from a positive work ethic (4) goal-
oriented operation, i.e., the ability to set goals, to reach them and to set new ones (5)
utilization of recent information that is relevant for the individual farmer’s own
circumstances and the needs of the farm (6) favorable starting points for the enterprise,
meaning good condition of machinery, buildings, land and an appropriate balance between
pricing of product and investments in production (7) cooperation with others in the supply
chain. An entrepreneurial farmer has to take the advantage of opportunities and drive
properly. A farmer with an entrepreneurial spirit energetically, enthusiastically and
carefully makes many different decisions about his farm activities in the context of the
value chain that influences the profits of the farm business till the produce reaching the
consumer. Entrepreneurial farmers need access to finance, land, labour, information and
knowledge to be successful. Smallholder farmers may be entrepreneurial in spirit but they
often lack the knowledge and awareness. An entrepreneurial farmer makes farming
decisions in a complex competitive and collaborative environment. Farmer-entrepreneurs
need to be technically competent, innovative and plan ahead so they can steer their farm
businesses through the stages of enterprise development – from establishment and survival
to rapid growth and maturity. From the farmers point of view, entrepreneurial skills are
developed through learning, learning happens through a change of perspective and a
change of perspective is initiated when farmers are confronted with new ideas or different
ways of doing things. Enhancing the farmers own experience

OPPORTUNITIES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURE

AND RELATED AREAS

Nowadays, Easy access to technology, emergence of micro financing, liberalized

government rules, enhancing the potentiality for agripreneuership in India. Agriculture
have several areas of entrepreneurship which include the activities like, Dairying,
Sericulture, Goat rearing, Rabbit rearing, Floriculture, Fisheries, Shrimp Farming, Sheep
rearing, vegetable cultivation, nursery farming, farm forestry(Pandey, 2013). The possible
areas of entrepreneurship in agriculture and food processing are:-

1. Agro produce processing units – There units do not manufacture any new product.
They merely process the agriculture produce e.g. Rice mills, Dal mills etc.
2. Agro Produce manufacturing units – These units produce entirely new products
based on the agricultural produce as the main raw material. Examples are –Sugar
factories, Bakery, Strawboard units etc.
3. Agro-inputs manufacturing units – These units produce goods either for
mechanization of agriculture on for increasing manufacturing plants, e.g.-Fertilizer
production units food processing units, agricultural implements etc.
4. Agro service centers –These include the workshops and service centre for repairing
and serving the agricultural implement used in agriculture.
5. Agro-Food processing and storage units like Cold storages, Banana ripening
chambers, minimal processing units, etc.,
 6. Miscellaneous areas – besides the above mentioned areas, the following areas may
prove to be encouraging to establish agri enterprises such as setting up of feed
processing units, seed processing units, mushroom production units, commercial
vermin-compose units, goat rearing farmers club, organic vegetable and fruits retail
outlet, bamboo plantation and jatropha cultivation.

A CASE STUDY OF POST HARVEST HANDLING OF PAPAYA:

For healthier business the farmer needs to have a greater vision of upcoming possibilities.
This may not be complex but requires a broader awareness of buying, selling and
marketing. It includes various factors like methods of cultivation, modes of transportation,
level of packing during transport, final condition of product ensuring customer
satisfaction. Fruits and vegetables form an important part in agri-business. The improper
packing techniques during transportation and handling in the current market leading to
post-harvest losses and dissatisfaction of customer resulting to downfall of business. This
problem occurs in fruits and vegetables like papaya, banana, mango, guava, citrus fruits,
watermelon, tomato, cauliflower, carrot etc..,

All the fruit and vegetables handled without proper packing system are prone for
mechanical and other physical damages, which cause surface and internal damage further
leads to spoilage externally and internally. This problem can be resolved by adopting an
appropriate packing technique using plastic perforated crates in place of jute
bags/dumping in open carts. Various countries have various methods of packing depending
on their sustained conditions.

For this case, the details of different ways of handling of papaya and banana were collected
by visiting to the local retailers and roadside vendors near Hanmakonda, Raithu Bazar
near Excise colony and Balasamudram, retail fruit vendors in Kazipet.

Current technique: Handling in jute bags/plastic bags or open carts

Issues: Even though carrying/packing/handling materials like plastic/jute bags is cheaper,

there are problems associated with these. They are

1. Contamination to the fruits due to unhygienic conditions of the packing material

2. These are poor packing materials for fruits and Cannot give protection to the fruits
and vegetables
3. Due to poor protection the Quantity losses of F & V’s are in the range of 10 to 50%
by weight
4. Spoilage and Quality losses due to bruising, abrasion, localized unwanted gas
formation, ripening.
5. More fundamentally, loss of produce cultivated with hardship of the farmer, but no
one eats/consumes and simply goes to garbage, i.e., national waste.
Suggested better method:

1. Plastic crates/Fibre board boxes for transportation and handling.

Advantages of plastic crates: These are self-stackable crates which will eliminate
the excessive stack weight, because the load of the fruits will not fall on the bottom
fruits
2. Perforated crates will allow the proper ventilation of gases(oxygen, carbon dioxide,
ethylene)
3. Contamination is avoided due to use of plastic crates (jute/plastic bags carry lot of
contamination).
4. Average savings using this method are 30 to 40% recovery of wastage and increase
of income to the farmers, vendors and better quality fruits and vegetables to the
consumers.

Some of the schemes of Government of India in supporting the agriculture business sector,
specifically in fruits and vegetables preservation and storage and handling.

This can definitely boost the morale of the farmers and other stakeholders to grow in the
agri-business and establish agripreneurship.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries provides financial assistance in the form of
grant-in-aid. Other agencies of the Government like National Horticulture Mission (NHM),
National Horticulture Board (NHB), Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export
Development Authority (APEDA), National Cooperative Development Corporation
(NCDC) and State Government’s also provide assistance for cold storages under their
respective schemes

References :

1. Web site of National Horticulture Board(NHB)

 2. Website of NIFTEM(National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship
Management)
3. Website of APEDA(Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development
Authority)
4. Website of CFTRI(Central Food Technological Research Institute)
5. Alex, Lwakuba (2011) A Review and Analysis of Policies on Farmers’
Entrepreneurship Development, A publication of PELUM, Misereor.
6. Drucker, P. (1985), Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Harper and Row, New York.
Eenhoorn, H.
7. Brockhaus, R. H. and Horwitz, P. S. (1986) The psychology of the entrepreneur (in
D.L. Sexton and R.W. Smilor (edition).
8. R.K Pandey. Study of Perspectives on Agripreneurship and Rural Development
9. Ramesh Babu D , Technological aspects of controlled atmosphere storage and
implementation by FHEL/CONCOR , proceedings of conference, Indo American
Chamber of Commerce, NewDelhi,IACC newsletter March 2014.

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