Entrepreneurial Extension for Promoting Agribusiness - A Case Study

Abstract

Commercialization of agriculture is possible by performing agribusiness activities. Entrepreneurial extension is now indispensable and has to perform different roles of promoting production, processing, value addition, trade and marketing. The case study of mango business was conducted in the Ramanagara district of Karnataka state during 2014 and 2015. Thirty young growers were selected for Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) as part of the National Mission on Food Processing and trained. Pre-EDP training findings indicated that 50 percent of the respondents involved only in production followed by the supply of the local markets (33%) and direct sales (17%). Post-EDP training found that 50 percent of the respondents expressed interest in direct marketing, followed by direct supply to the processor, exporter and retailers and remaining 20 percent were willing to start their own processing units individually or in groups. The majority felt that the reasons for a change in mindset was due to an understanding of the value chain (70%), family support (15%) and support from agencies (15%). Training module should focus on value chain analysis, feasibility study and business plan. Linking the stakeholders like producer, producer groups, processor, retailer and consumer will help in improving the value and profit of the mango business.