BLOG

The need for ‘agripreneurs’ in Kerala

by Shivdas B. Menon

Kerala is seeing a sea change in various social economic aspects. There are key life-style changes expected which will result in a transition of the consumer’s consumption patterns.

• An increasing incidence of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, asthma and obesity resulting in a demand for healthy products
• Technological changes in agriculture which has helped in state of the art practices like vertical agriculture, precision agriculture, hydropony, polyhouses etc.
• Increased consumer awareness driven by media penetration and celebrity chefs promoting new cuisines and product categories across urban and rural Kerala

These changes are expected to create not only new opportunities for existing players but also new avenues for potential entrepreneurs. This demand will need the birth of the ‘agripreneur’ in Kerala.

The Agripreneur is a newly coined management noun referring to a new breed of young entrepreneurs combining their love of Farming and Agriculture with an acquired professional Business Approach.

While the business reasons range and seem similar to every other sector, agriculture has increased significance because of the target category. Agripreneurs are essential to bring

• Entrepreneurship and self-employment to rural areas
• Inclusiveness and focus on women

Entrepreneurship and self-employment to rural areas

Due to the rising literacy levels and the urban influence, the youth in Kerala are increasing shying away from agriculture. This has led underuse of land resources and the low labor productivity due to the limited and slow adoption of technology and the inadequate support infrastructure in terms of transportation, warehousing and credit facilities, which impact the production levels and the extent of wastages in production.

Inclusiveness and focus on women

With the increasing focus on the kitchen gardens and intelligent use of space, agriculture is a high potential sector to bring women into the folds of entrepreneurship. With their active participation, agriculture can emerge with the success footprint similar to the IT industry in India, where industry experts comment that the ability to engage so many educated women who were otherwise confined to child and elder care could actively contribute to the economy. 2014, being the year of kitchen garden, housewives’ can venture into cultivation of vegetables in their terrace and backyard.

The role of the entrepreneur in agriculture  is to create linkages which are critical in bringing the producer, processor and consumer together are supply chain linkages which is at a nascent stage In Kerala. Increase in agripreneurs can encourage

1. Transparency and information exchange — Schemes must ensure the growth of trust within the farmer group by providing complete information on the clauses prevailing in the agreement, along with knowledge of the prevailing prices for the farm produce.
2. Farmer support mechanism — To secure the quality and quantity of produce obtained under contract, companies would need to provide farmers with assistance in terms of key inputs, such as seeds and, information on farm practices. Also, since farming in Kerala is a credit deficient, financial institutions would have to evaluate a mechanism to provide adequate credit line facilities to the farmer/producer.
3. Profit sharing – Schemes need to innovate and come up with a sourcing model that incorporates some means of sharing profits with the producer. This could be through either individual payment to farmers for their produce or community investments in the sourcing regions/villages.

It is time we entrepreneurs promote agriculture as a career avenue for the bright and young and we hope events like the Global Agro meet in November and the TiEcon in December will give the sector the right impetus . And important step by the government is to declare agriculture as an industry.