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AGRO-ENTERPRISES FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LIVELIHOOD SECURITY

J.P. Sharma
  • Country of Origin:

  • Imprint:

    NIPA

  • eISBN:

    9789389907292

  • Binding:

    EBook

  • Number Of Pages:

    468

  • Language:

    English

Individual Price: 2,700.00 INR 2,430.00 INR + Tax

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The current multi-pronged challenges of Indian agriculture demand for searching the viable alternative for restoring farmers’ and rural youths’ confidence in the agricultural vocation. Agri-enterprises offer such opportunities to help the agrarian communities to enhance their farm productivity and enhance income from the per unit of land and time. The present book on “Agro-enterprises for Rural Development and Livelihoods Security” is an excellent synthesis of scholarly concepts, cases and methodologies pertaining to enterprise promotion in agriculture and the related dimensions. For the benefit of the readers, the book has been divided into three segments. The first part deals with need for micro-enterprise promotion in agriculture, resource appraisal for micro-enterprise development, developing the self, characteristics of potential entrepreneurs and related aspects. The major aim of this section is to explore, unfreeze and broaden the cognitive and affective domain of the readers so that a desirable mindset among them may be created at the initial stage so that an effective learning may take place in the subsequent chapteIn the second dimension of the book, readers may find the description of varieties of technological options. These include the appropriate technologies and enterprises related to vegetable cultivation, protected cultivation, seed production, food processing, poultry farming, bee-keeping, dairy production and processing, fishery based enterprise, livestock and piggery based technological options having entrepreneurial potential. The successful experiences of the agri entrepreneurs are also shared in this section. The third and most important part of the book emphasizes on support system required to initiate and sustain the agri-enterprise. These include necessary management related interventions, trade, export, quality standards and other inter-related issues which would definitely enable readers to comprehend how to be successful agri-preneur. Besides, the role of civil society organizations for economic independence in rural India has also been narrated. On-line trading, project monitoring and evaluation and related issue for agricultural commodities are deliberated by the renowned authorities of the above fields.

0 Preface

Preface Agriculture continues to offer livelihood sustenance to over 80 per cent of the rural populace in India. With the temporal growth in human population, per capita share of production resource like land and water have declined substantially. The greatest challenge of the present decade is to create employment and generate income opportunities for the poor, both dwelling in urban as well as rural areas on a massive scale in a sustainable manner.  Youth unemployment rates have been growing annually at more than 15 percent all over the world. According to UN 2000 report on youth unemployment, the problem is worse in Asia. Simultaneously there has been a marked decrease in the number of jobs on offer from the organized sector (less than 10 percent).  As a result, the emphasis on job creation has shifted to the informal sector. Thus, the focused agricultural development has become indispensible for rural development in Indian context. Therefore, the role of agri-based enterprises has magnified manifold in the prevailing scenario. In the present era of shrinking land holding and increasing unemployment of youth in rural areas, agri-business and micro enterprise promotion has emerged as a viable option to mitigate social unrest situation in rural milieu. Micro-enterprise in many cases has been successfully experimented for enhanced rural livelihood security. This gives adequate impetus for its scope in agricultural sector too. Hence it is inevitable to tap the opportunities for promoting micro entrepreneurship in agriculture, which in turn can address the present challenges related to agricultural productivity, profitability and unemployment and ultimately becoming instrumental in rural development. How to promote rural micro enterprises for livelihood security is the most pressing question for policy planners, researchers and field level community mobilizers as well. And, this prompted the authors to come out with a book focusing on different facets of agro-enterprises for rural development for all practical purpose for the prospective agri-preneurs.

 
1 Entrepreneurship Development in Agriculture
J.P.Sharma & Nishi Sharma

The concept of entrepreneurship has a wide range of meanings. On one extreme, an entrepreneur is a person of very high aptitude who pioneers change, possessing characteristics found in only a very small fraction of the population. On the other extreme of definitions, anyone who wants to work for himself or herself is considered to be an entrepreneur. The word entrepreneur originates from the French word, entreprendre, which means “to undertake.” In a business context, it means to start a business. The Merriarn-Webster Dictionary presents the definition of an entrepreneur as one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. Many research studies have contributed to the literature on characteristics of entrepreneurs. Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter’s definition of entrepreneurship placed an emphasis on innovation, such as new products, new production methods, new markets and new forms of organization. Wealth is created when such innovation results in new demand. From this viewpoint, one can define the function of the entrepreneur as one of combining various input factors in an innovative manner to generate value to the customer with the hope that this value will exceed the cost of the input factors, thus generating superior returns that result in the creation of wealth. From an economist’s point of view, an entrepreneur is one who brings resources, labour, materials and other assets into combinations that make their value greater than before.

1 - 14 (14 Pages)
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2 Micro-enterprise Development : An Overview
Dipika Hajong & R.N. Padaria

Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development of any country. India is moving progressively towards becoming a ‘Knowledge economy’ it becomes increasingly important that the focus is made on advancement of skills and these skills have to be relevant to the emerging economic environment. In old economy, skill development largely meant development of shop floor or manual skills. In new or knowledge economy the skill sets can range from professional, conceptual, managerial, operational behavioral to interpersonal skills and inter-domain skills. In the 21st century as science progresses towards a better understanding of the miniscule, that is, genes, nano-particles, bits and bytes and neurons, knowledge domains and skill domains also multiply and become more and more complex. Micro enterprise development is one of the strategies seen to bring about pro-poor economic growth.

15 - 22 (8 Pages)
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3 Resource Appraisal for Micro-enterprise Development in Agriculture
Rashmi Singh & Shantanu Kumar Dubey

Of all kinds of resources; financial, natural, physical and human resources, the most critical resources for any endeavor are the human resources involved in it. Physical, natural and economic resources are important for facilitating development of any nation but the most important are the human resources. Human resources are the most significant of all the resources to convert all other available resources into production and economic entities. Capable, efficient and motivated human resources can bring about the tremendous positive change towards progress. No doubt, it is equally true that inefficient people can wither away a whole empire and squander away its precious wealth and abundance. People are the real wealth of nations. Resource appraisal is very significant for micro-enterprise development especially in rural areas. A developing economy like India needs entrepreneurs who are competent to perceive new opportunities and are willing to incur the necessary risks in exploiting them. Rural areas are infrastructurally poor and to take up any entrepreneurial venture in such a scenario appears to be enormous to the simple farmer who has been engaged in cultivating the land in a traditional manner. Developing agri-enterprises is needed urgently to enhance the productivity and incomes of the farmers from their ever shrinking agricultural lands.

23 - 26 (4 Pages)
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4 Product Identification and SWOT Analysis
J. P. Sharma & Rashmi Singh

Introduction Having decided to become an agri-preneur, the next task is to decide what business to venture into, the product or range of products that shall be taken up for manufacture and in what quantity. This may sound simple, it is the hardest and the single most important decision one will take in this whole business of setting up a small-scale enterprise. As the old saying goes “well begun is half done”, and if the decision to select a product is right, basically enterprise will do well, if not there are likely to be troubles ahead. One of the reasons why many small scale units become “sick” is that no serious thought is given by the entrepreneur before starting the unit on whether there is reasonable chance of succeeding in the product selected. Even after one has taken a correct decision, all sorts of things can happen and upset the plans, but in such cases, one can retrieve the situation, provided the product selected is intrinsically sound. There could be factors beyond control and one must be prepared to face them.

27 - 42 (16 Pages)
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5 Protected Cultivation of Horticultural Crops
Balraj Singh

Introduction In spite of considerable progress achieved during the last three decades in horticulture production in India, the average productivity of different horticultural crops is quite low as compared to the best yields at national and world level. This indicates the scope to enhance the yield in different horticultural crops by many fold along with its quality specially in vegetables. This is because of an appealing gap between potential yield and the actual yield of various vegetable crops. For many vegetable crops, the yields realized are even less than 50% of their potential yield. Some time the farmers who are growing their horticultural crops during main season are even not getting back their cost of production, but the prices of the same horticulture produce is very high during off season. Several biotic and abiotic stresses are the major factors for low productivity and poor quality in several horticultural crops under their open field cultivation during rainy and post rainy season more specifically in vegetables. The increasing demand of off-season and high quality vegetables in various markets of the big cities has calls the attention of the vegetable growers for diversification from traditional way of vegetable cultivation or from traditional agriculture.

43 - 50 (8 Pages)
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6 High Value Vegetable Cultivation : Entrepreneurial Avenues
A.D.Munshi

Introduction Vegetables are one of the potential crops in meeting the food requirements and improving the nutritional status of our people. They play a vital role in crop diversification, employment generation, and nutritional security and in improving the economic conditions of farmers. Our country has made a tremendous progress in vegetable production and ranked as second largest producers of vegetables in the world with a total production of more than 125 million tons per annum. Our estimated demand is about 225 million tons by 2020 AD. This target can be achieved through use of improved vegetable varieties, hybrids and production technologies even with diminishing land and water resources. In Indian vegetable scenario, IARI has contributed significantly by developing more than 168 improved varieties and 24 hybrids in different vegetables. Apart from high yielding, many of these varieties/F1 hybrids are resistant to biotic and abitic stresses and also suitable for processing, value addition and export. Besides developing large number of improved varieties and F1 hybrids of vegetables, IARI has developed/standardized improved hi-tech vegetable nursery and off-season production technologies which require commercialization by the entrepreneurs as these can bring quantum improvement

51 - 72 (22 Pages)
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7 Seed Production : An Entrepreneurial Venture
B.S. Tomar & K. Vinod Kumar

Introduction Good quality seed plays an important and crucial role in deciding the performance of any crop. Availability of quality seed is one of the important factors for increasing the production and productivity of agriculture. Seed is the cheapest and most efficient input as compared to other inputs like fertilizer, pesticides, water etc. Timely availability of quality seed of the right variety/ hybrid in adequate quantity decides the strength and health of agricultural economy. Seed has been defined in many ways. Botanically, seed is defined as “a mature fertile ovule”. Seed is also defined as “an embryo, a living organism, embedded in the supporting or food storage tissue surrounded by seed coat”. Seed is also defined as “any plant part (cuttings, corms, bulbs, rhizomes etc.) used for growing commercial crops”. Seed a basic input in Agriculture, a carrier of new technology, a basic tool for secured food supply. Seed is a principal means to secure crop yield in less favorable production areas. Seed is an important medium for rapid rehabilitation of agriculture in cases of natural disaster.

73 - 82 (10 Pages)
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8 Food Processing : An Emerging Option for Micro-enterprise Promotion in Agriculture
R.R. Sharma

Introduction India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. Fruits and vegetables are the reservoir of vital nutrients. Being highly perishable, 20-40% of the total production of fruits and vegetables goes waste from the time of harvesting till they reach the consumers. It is, therefore, necessary to make them available for consumption throughout the year in processed or preserved form and to save the sizeable amount of losses. At present, about 2% of the total produce is processed in India mainly for domestic consumption. The most alarming situation is the post harvest losses of fruits and vegetables worth approximately Rs. 18,500 crores per annum. Fruits and vegetables have great potential for value addition and diversification to give a boost to food industry, create employment opportunities and give better returns to the farmers. Post harvest management of fruits and vegetables plays a significant role in achieving the target of nutritional security to the ever-growing population as well as to meet the requirement of processing industry and export trade.  With the advent and development of food consciousness amongst the consumers, to elaborate food standards, codes of hygienic practice, are necessary to maintain the quality of the food products.

83 - 94 (12 Pages)
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9 Poultry Farming : Profitable Venture for Entrepreneurs
R. K. Sharma

Introduction Civilization of mankind began with the process of domestication of livestock and poultry. The Indian Red Jungle fowl is considered as the ancestor of modern day chicken breeds. Chickens were first domesticated in S E Asia (India, Southern China, Burma, Malaya region) between 5000 – 3000 BC and then spread westwards and then Africa, Europe and America. Poultry in India was a leisurely and backyard village venture till sixties. The entire poultry scenario of Indian sub-continent changed only in last 4-5 decades and now India ranks 3rd in egg production (3.9%) after China (45%) & USA (8%) and 5th in broiler production (3.3%) after USA (26.5%), China (17%), Brazil (15.5%) & Mexico (4.3%) with about 54,000 and 1800 million eggs and broilers produced annually. But in terms of per capita availability it ranks amongst the lowest. Poultry production systems of the developing nations including India can be broadly categorized into two distinct classes: one - low external input traditional family poultry production system or free range or backyard poultry in unorganized sector in the villages and the other one is high input industrial or intensive poultry production system in urban and peri-urban areas. The former is highly unorganized and consists of thousands of small holders (5-15 birds) where birds scavenge and forage on house-hold wastes, shrubs, weeds, crop residues, insects and aquatic plants with no or little external inputs.

95 - 108 (14 Pages)
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10 Beekeeping - An Employment and Income Generating Vocation for Rural Youth
R.N. Sharma

Introduction The achievements in agriculture and its allied areas has made our country self sufficient economically. Our country has many landmarks in production of the grains, milk, meat, flower, vegetable etc which not only fulfill our own demands but even earning a lot of foreign exchange from export. Unemployment is a major problem effecting the growth of our country. The reasons for higher state of unemployment in rural areas can be attributed to poverty, law education and lack of job appointment. Alternatively, if the youths are self employed in the agrobased enterprises, then the problem of unemployment could be reduced to a certain limit, especially in the villages. There are so many vocations in which youth could be engaged such as dairy farming, poultry, piggery, beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, flower cultivation etc.

109 - 116 (8 Pages)
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11 Dairy Production and Processing as an Enterprise : Retrospect and Prospects
Dalip K. Gosain

Introduction In India, the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) sector plays a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country. It is estimated that in terms of value, the sector accounts for about 39 per cent of the manufacturing output and around 33 per cent of the total export of the country. Further, in recent years the MSE sector has consistently registered higher growth rate compared to the overall industrial sector. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. As per available statistics, this sector employs an estimated 31 million persons spread over 12.8 million enterprises and the labour intensity in the MSE sector is estimated to be almost 4 times higher than the large enterprises. Definition for SMEs is often considered to be an obstacle for business studies and market research. Definitions in use today define thresholds in terms of employment, turnover and assets. They also incorporate a reasonable amount of flexibility around year-to-year changes in these measures so that a business qualifying as an SME in one year can have a reasonable expectation of remaining an SME in the next.

117 - 122 (6 Pages)
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12 Fisheries and Aquaculture in India : Perspective and Prospective Views
S.D. Singh

Introduction Fisheries represent an important and fast growing food production sector in India that contributes more than 1% to the National GDP and 4.7% to the agricultural GDP. With an annual production of about 7 million tonnes from marine and inland waters, the country is the 3rd fish producer in the world and the 2nd largest producer of inland fish, next only to China. With a coastline of 8,129 km and EEZ of 2.02 sq km, our marine fish production is to the tune of 2.95 million tonnes. Similarly, the inland fisheries resources comprising 29,000 km of rivers, 0.3 million ha of estuaries, 0.19 million ha of backwaters and lagoons, 3.15 million ha of reservoirs, 0.2 million ha of floodplain wetlands. 0.72 million ha of upland lakes and 2.34 million ha of ponds and tanks produce 3.76 million tonnes annually. Annual export earnings from fish and shellfish are about Rs.8.357 crore, accounting for nearly 20% of the agricultural export. Fish is a health food that is relatively cheap and affordable to the poor. Fisheries and aquaculture provides income, food and livelihood to more than 14 million people directly or indirectly. The annual per capita availability of fish in the country is 9 kg that sustains the domestic market price of fish and the sector has registered an impressive overall annual growth rate of over 4% over the years, with growth in some farming activities going beyond 5%. However, stagnating growth in marine and inland capture fisheries is a cause of concern.

123 - 142 (20 Pages)
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13 Ration Formulation for Profitable Dairy
Kusumakar Sharma, VB Chaturvedi & Rupasi Tiwari

Introduction Ration formulation is a process by which different feed ingredients are combined in a proportion necessary to provide the animal with proper amount of nutrients needed at a particular stage of production. It requires the knowledge about nutrients, feedstuffs and animal in the development of nutritionally adequate rations that will be eaten in sufficient amounts to provide the level of production at a reasonable cost. The ration should be palatable and will not cause any serious digestive disturbance or toxic effects to the animal.   Different species, strains or classes of animals have different requirements for energy (carbohydrates and fats), proteins, minerals and vitamins in order to maintain its various functions like maintenance, reproduction, egg production, milk production and/or growth.    Least-cost ration formulation for non-ruminants is being prepared by  linear computer programming. For ruminants the approach used is to maximize the use of roughage, then, concentrate is used to supply the deficient  nutrients to meet the requirement of the animals. It should be remembered that rations for ruminants are formulated on dry matter basis due to wide variations in moisture content of feeds especially roughage.

143 - 154 (12 Pages)
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14 Post Harvest Handling of Horticultural Crops
R.K. PaL

Introduction Ever since the civilization of mankind, efforts have been directed towards accumulating and storing foods when they are in plenty in order to meet needs during the days of scarcity. In case of food grains not much problem was faced due to nature’s noble way of reducing the moisture level as the grains mature. However, in case of fruits and vegetables, long-term storage in their fresh form was not possible (until development of modern methods) primarily due to their high degree of perishability owing to high moisture content of these commodities at the time of harvest. Appropriate Post Harvest Management (PHM) of horticultural crops fruits and vegetables in their fresh form prolongs their usefulness and in some cases improves their quality. It also checks market glut, helps in orderly marketing, increases financial gain to the producers and preserves quality of produce for much longer time. Horticultural produce like fruits, vegetables and cut flowers are living, respiring tissues separated from the parent plant. Therefore, the aim of PHM is to control various physiological processes viz. respiration, transpiration and other metabolic activities to keep produce in maximum usable form.

155 - 162 (8 Pages)
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15 Value Addition and Processing Opportunities in Food Processing
Devinder Dhingra

Introduction The food processing sector is highly fragmented industry, it widely comprises of the following sub-segments: fruits and vegetables, milk and milk products, beer and alcoholic beverages, meat and poultry, marine products, grain processing, packaged or convenience food and packaged drinks. A huge number of entrepreneurs in this industry are small in terms of their production and operations, and are largely concentrated in the unorganized segment. This segment accounts for more than 70% of the output in terms of volume and 50% in terms of value. Though the organized sector seems comparatively small, it is growing at a much faster pace. The food processing industry can be classified into three categories: organized (25%), small scale (33%) and unorganized (42%) (Source: FAIDA/ Minstry of Food Processing Industries). The share of food processing in total manufacturing is only 9% in India.

163 - 172 (10 Pages)
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16 Commercial Avenues in Floriculture for Entrepreneurship
T. Janakiram & K. V. Prasad

Introduction The floriculture industry in India is characterized by growing traditional flowers (loose flowers) and cut flowers under open field conditions and protected environment conditions, respectively. India also has a strong dry flower industry, which contributes a major share to the overall trade. Other segments like fillers, potted plants, seeds and planting material, turf grass industry and value added products also contribute a share in the overall growth of the floriculture sector.  Area and Production With the rise in people’s investment in flower purchase for gifts at social ceremonies or for home decoration, the focus shifted to production of cut flowers too. The fresh increase in the area under flowers is more for cut flower production, but not necessarily at the cost of loose flower production. A large share of the total world production area is in India. With an estimated area of 1,60,000 ha (2007-08), India perhaps is the largest production base in the world. The last decade and a half has witnessed significant increase in the area under flowers, which has tripled from 53,000 ha (1993-94).  (Fig. 1).

173 - 194 (22 Pages)
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17 Plants Nursery as a Micro-enterprise
ManisH Srivastav & R.R. Sharma

Introduction India is blessed with varied agro-climatic conditions. This enables India to grow almost all types of horticultural crops namely fruits, vegetables, potato, tropical tuber crops and mushroom; ornamental crops; medicinal and aromatic plants, spices and plantation crops like coconut, cashew, cocoa, tea, coffee and rubber, in one region or the other throughout the year. India has now a prominent place in world horticulture scenario. Starting from low ebb during first five year, horticulture sector got a boost in 8th plan onwards as a means of diversification to agriculture. Horticulture today, is not merely a means of diversification as envisaged during 80s, but forms an integral part of food, nutrition, economic and employment security. As a result of proper policy initiatives, India is the second largest producer of the fruits and vegetables in the world contributing about 10 per cent to world fruits and 13.8 per cent to vegetable production. Adoption of horticulture crops in production, both by small and marginal farmers, has brought nutritional security and livelihood security in many regions of the country, e.g. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and improved overall socioeconomic conditions of the people e.g. Jharkhand and West Bengal.

195 - 206 (12 Pages)
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18 Vermicomposting - Enterprise Development in Rural Areas
R.K. Sharma, K. Sharma, G.T. Gujar & J.K.S. Bhandari

Introduction Vermicompost is an organic manure (bio-fertilizer) produced as the vermicast by earth worm feeding on biological waste material and plant residues. This compost is an odorless and clean organic material containing adequate quantities of N, P, K and several micronutrients essential for plant growth. Vermicompost is a preferred nutrient source for organic farming. It is eco-friendly, non-toxic, consumes low energy input for composting and is a recycled biological product. Earthworms are soil invertebrates well known for their contribution to soil transformation and turnover, by breaking down of organic material. The effect of earthworms on soils can take three main forms: effects on biological, physical, or chemical soil properties and processes. These can operate eother directly or indirectly.   Farmers are aware that earthworms are generally beneficial.  However, few are familiar with the important species they have on their land and the amount or number of earthworm required for their soil is also a big question to them. It is important that farmers must identify and familiarize with the species of earthworms so that they can be utilized for the purpose of vermicomposting.

207 - 218 (12 Pages)
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19 Entrepreneurship Generation and Livelihood Security through Livestock Sector
M.C. Sharma & Rupasi Tiwari

Introduction India possesses one of the largest livestock populations in the world, which is more than 515 million with the top position in cattle (199 million), buffalo (105 million), goat (141 million) and sheep (91 million), poultry (385 million) (DAHD, 2009). Out of the total livestock in the country, around 38.2 per cent are cattle, 20.2 percent are buffaloes, 12.7 per cent are sheep, 25.6 per cent are goats and only 2.8 per cent are pigs. All other animals are less than 0.50 per cent of the total livestock population. India has a large genetic diversity of livestock containing 30 breeds of cattle, 10 breeds of buffaloes, 42 breeds of sheep, 20 breeds of goats and 7 breeds of camels. Further, the country has 14 per cent of the world’s cattle population and 57 per cent of the world’s buffalo population and is on top in terms of the buffalo population and at 2nd position in terms of the total cattle population in the world. Of the total buffalo and cattle breeds of the world, approximately 75% and 20% respectively are available in Asia and 15% and 5% in India.

219 - 246 (28 Pages)
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20 Breeds of Livestock and their Genetic Improvement
M.C. Sharma & Rupasi Tiwari

Introduction Animal husbandry has always been an integral part of Indian civilization and our country possesses rich biodiversity of animal genetic resources, which are spread over diverse agro-climatic regions. These resources have been developed by our ancestors over several generations and have acquired special attributes like remarkable adaptability to environment, management conditions and genetic resistance to most tropical diseases besides survival on poor quality of feed and fodder. In spite of multiple threats of change, replacement, degradation and extinction, this biodiversity of farm animals comprises of 30 well-described breeds of cattle, 10 of buffaloes, 20 of goats, 40 of sheep, 8 of camel, 6 of horses, 20 of poultry besides large number of variants of native ponies, pig, donkey, yak and mithun. This mega-diversity is not accidental, nor it is purely natural, rather, it is the outcome of thousands of years of deliberate selection and planned exposure to a range of natural conditions. The description of various breeds of most economically important species of livestock viz. cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep and their genetic improvement is as follows:

247 - 264 (18 Pages)
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21 Entrepreneurship through Pig Farming in India
M.C. Sharma & Rupasi Tiwari

Introduction In recent past, ‘entrepreneurship’ has been a buzz word in Indian livestock business sector. It literally means ‘turning innovations into incomes’. As a whole, livestock is a fast growing sector in Indian agricultural economy, growing at an annual rate of approximately 4.5%. This has opened avenues for commercialization of more and more technologies involving livestock health and production. According to a recent estimate by FAO (2009), meat sector in India is also growing at a rate of 4.5% per annum over last decade and pigs, contributing about 8.2% of country’s total meat production, have a tremendous role to play in the face of globalization, strict WTO regulations and emerging IPR issues. The ‘knowledge economy’ is coming to play an important role in such situation, meaning, much wider application of livestock technologies in livestock business.

265 - 280 (16 Pages)
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22 Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L) Seed Production as a Potential Micro-enterprise for Income Augmentation: Experiences of Action Research
Shantanu Kumar Dubey, S.K. Singh & Uma Sah

Introduction The productivity of pulses in India has remained stagnant over the past several decades. In the case of pigeonpea, which a major pulse crop in India, it has been hovering around 700 kg ha-1 for the last five decades. Uttar Pradesh (UP) occupies 9.14% (2.16 million ha) of the total area under pigeonpea in the country (23.63 million ha). Poor crop management practices adopted by the farmers, non-availability of quality seed of improved varieties, damage by insect pests and diseases and drought are some of the factors responsible low productivity in pulses. In a recent review, Maruthi Shankar et al. (2004) identified shortage of quality seed as one of the major constraints for increasing pigeonpea production in India. The genetically pure seed alone can increase productivity by 10-15% (Saxena, 2006). Despite release of several improved varieties of pigeonpea, local landraces dominate the cultivation of pigeonpea in the country. Timely availability of quality seed of improved varieties at affordable price remains one of the major concerns in pigeonpea cultivation. Most of the farmers procure their pigeonpea seed from local traders or rely on their ‘own-saved’ seed.

281 - 292 (12 Pages)
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23 Understanding Self Help Group Dynamics
Premlata Singh & Nishi Sharma

Introduction Self Help Groups (SHGs) are fast emerging as a powerful tool of socio-economic empowerment of the poor in rural areas. These are based on the principle by the people, for the people and of the people. Such groups are participatory processes to provide opportunities for people to share knowledge, common experiences and problems. Self Help Groups (SHGs) of women in India have been recognized as an effective strategy for the empowerment of women in rural as well as urban areas, bringing women together from all spheres of life to light for their rights or a cause. Since the overall empowerment of women is crucially dependent on economic empowerment,  women through these SHGs work on a range of issues such as health, nutrition, agriculture, forestry etc. besides income generation activities and seeking micro credit. “SHG is a small, economically homogeneous and affinity based group of people who have decided to save and contribute to a common fund to be lent to its members as per the groups decisions”. Generally, a ‘Self Help Group’ (SHG) is formed when members of a community, who have the same or similar problem, come together, meet, share experiences, have discussions and thereby arrive at solutions.

293 - 314 (22 Pages)
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24 Concept of Cooperatives and its Scope in Farmers’ Capacity Building
J.P.S.Dabas

Introduction The farmer’s socio-economic conditions continue to be poor. The job availability and opportunities are also very poor in rural areas and are declining with time. There are several instances of despair amongst farmers due to heavy burden of loan, which they took for procuring inputs for crop production. In majority of the cases loan is still borrowed from the local moneylenders on a very high rate of interest, as it is convenient and simple for them. The despair arises due to non-payment of loan in the event of crop failure or market crash for that crop, for which he had taken loan. The reason for crop failure may be adverse climatic conditions or pest attack, which could not be managed due lack of know-how and non-availability of good quality agro-chemicals. Report about the presence of spurious pesticide and fertilizers in the market are quite common in media. Farmers meet unfair treatment in the market while procuring inputs and marketing their produce. The market is uncertain and several times the farmers are not able to meet even the variable cost of production.  There is no other option left except ploughing back the crop in the field. The majorities of our farmers are small and marginal and unable to bear such losses on one hand and government doesn’t have a contingency plan to help the poor farmers on other hand. Even if it provides some help it doesn’t reach the affected farmers.

315 - 320 (6 Pages)
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25 Impact Evaluation of Small Scale Agri-enterprise : A Case study of Mushroom and Beekeeping Enterprises
Rajinder Peshin

Introduction The process of agricultural modernization has produced three distinct types of agriculture. These are industrialized, green revolution and low-external input and unimproved (Chambers et al. 1989) . The industrialized and the green revolution agriculture have been able to respond to the technological package, producing high input, high output systems of agriculture. Most agricultural systems in the industrialized countries count as high external input systems save for the relatively small number of organic farmers (Pretty 1995) . In the countries of the Third World, high-external input systems are found in the large irrigated plains and deltas of South, Southeast and East Asia, and parts of Latin America and North America, but also in patches in other regions. In the industrialized countries farmers modernized by introducing machinery, replacing labour, specializing operations and changing practices to ensure greater production. In the green revolution areas the success lay in agricultural scientists breeding new varieties of stable cereals that matured quickly, and use of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, credit and water regulation.

321 - 332 (12 Pages)
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26 Distance Education : A Support for Micro-enterprise Promotion in Agriculture
B.S. Hansra

Introduction Indian economy is characterized predominance of rural population and is heavily dependence on agriculture sector. The major challenges to the growth and prosperity of the country are unemployment and poverty. Various attempts by government in the past have yielded only marginal success. The problem of rural unemployment and poverty can be solved by creating some new avenues for employment generation in the rural areas. Majority of farmers are still using traditional farming practices. The concept of entrepreneurship in agriculture can play vital role in improving their livelihood security and alleviating the poverty.  The individuals involved in farming/industrial activity should posses drive, ambition, foresight, and imaginations to break their traditional barrier, overcome social inertia, transform theory into practice. The individuals performing these functions are the entrepreneurs, and their enterprising ability and skill can be termed as entrepreneurship (Kothari, 1989).

333 - 338 (6 Pages)
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27 Marketing Strategies for Micro-enterprise Promotion
Ajit Kewalramani

Introduction In India Agriculture was practiced formerly on a subsistence basis; the villages were self sufficient, people exchanged their goods, and services within the village on a barter basis. With the improvement in rural infrastructure all these goods and services has become commercial in character, resulting in development of Micro-enterprises and requirement of their business promotion. Businesses with five or fewer employees, called micro-enterprises, support many rural and urban households in developing nations. The term marketing connotes a series of activities involved in moving the goods from the point of production to the point of consumption.  Marketing is an integral part of micro-enterprise products to encourage them to make more investment and to increase production. Thus there is an increasing awareness that it is not enough just to produce however it must be marketed as well.

339 - 346 (8 Pages)
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28 Good Agricultural Practices in Relation to Micro-enterprise Promotion
Arvind Pratap Singh

Introduction With the major thrust of extension agencies now focused on production techniques, the market-led extension holds the key to the future. This assumes greater significance in the light of the new international trading regime under WTO as the export opportunities are now being opened-up to India, which may have direct implications on agro-enterprise development. In the light of the above, the extension functionaries in India are presently ill-equipped to deal with such challenges. It appears now that the production of the agri-produce is going to be dictated by market requirements. In this age of WTO, the extension methodology also needs to work out for dissemination of good agricultural practices to the farmers based on internationally accepted standards. This recommendation has now been made in the 05th National Extension Education Congress held in 2009 jointly conducted by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and CS Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur (Proceedings of the 05th National Extension Education Congress, March 05-09, 2009, ICAR and CSAU, Kanpur). 

347 - 354 (8 Pages)
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29 NABARD Supported Promotional and Developmental Programmes — Farm and Non Farm Sector
G.V. Sunil Kumar

Farm Innovation and Promotion Fund (FIPF) Introduction Many innovative initiatives are being attempted by various agencies in the Held of Agriculture and allied sectors. To support these innovations, NABARD has decided to set up a fund titled “Farm Innovation and Promotion Fund” (FIPF). Initial Corpus of Fund Rs. 5 crore (2004-05). Objectives of the Fund The objective of the Fund is to support the activities listed below :          To demonstrate bankability of new concepts in farm sector         To develop prototypes for further commercial development         To support activities connected with market survey for potential assessment/market acceptability for new agri/rural products

355 - 400 (46 Pages)
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30 Commodity Future Trading at NCDEX
A. Lakshmikantha Reddy

Introduction National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) is a professionally managed on-line multi commodity exchange offering commodity futures trading in a wide range of commodities viz, agricultural, base metals, precious metals, energy, ferrous metal, and others. The shareholders of NCDEX comprises of large national level institutions, large public sector bank and companies. Promoter shareholders of the Exchange include ICICI Bank Limited (ICICI), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE). Other shareholders are: Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), CRISIL Limited, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), Goldman Sachs, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Shree Renuka Sugars Limited. NCDEX is the only commodity exchange in the country promoted by national level institutions. This unique parentage enables it to offer a bouquet of benefits, which are currently in short supply in the commodity markets. The institutional promoters and shareholders of NCDEX are prominent players in their respective fields and bring with them institutional building experience, trust, nationwide reach, technology and risk management skills. 

401 - 404 (4 Pages)
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31 Approach to Rural Development : Economy Decentralization
ANIL P. JOSHI

Introduction Gamhian concept of development gained inspiration from villages where local resources met the optimum needs of the poorest of the poor. Gandhiji was of the view that the process of development of the Nation must begin from its villages. In a country like India, where villages are in the majority the prosperity of the Nation can only be ensured when fanners are considered as development managers. The economic liberty of individuals and villages in effect will lead to the prosperity of the Nation. The anomaly in this regard in our country can be seen in the overcrowded cities and desolated a village that is indicative of major gaps in our approach. Acute migration has created a dearth of strong hands in the villages resulting in overcrowded cities, putting tremendous strains on its infrastructure. Thus economy and-ecology of most regions in the country, both rural as well as the urban areas are threatened. The Independence has been attained by the nation 65 years ago but Economic Slavery is pervasive everywhere in the Rural India. There must be an Economic Independence drive in the country. This will check rising Economic inequity between rural urban regions.

405 - 418 (14 Pages)
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32 Financial Management of Agricultural Projects
Pramod Kumar

Introduction An agricultural project is defined as an investment activity where financial resources are expended to create the capital assets with an anticipation of benefits over time. In other words, it is an activity where money is spent to realize the expected returns and requires planning, financing and implementation as a unit. In fact, the whole complex of activities using resources to gain benefits constitute the agricultural projects. The agricultural project may include projects such as irrigation, dairy, poultry, piggery, rural credit, social forestry, land reclamation/leveling, rural development projects, etc. Moreover, the dividing line between an “investment “ and a “production” expenditure is an agricultural project.  For instance, the fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, etc. are called investments where returns are realized over the service period of asset. Likewise, the plantation of fruit crops though constitute an investment yet the paddy transplanting as production expense, i.e., the difference exists in time span to grow plants.

419 - 428 (10 Pages)
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33 Micro-credit : Basic Issues and Strategies
R. Roy Burman & Shantanu Kumar Dubey

Introduction Home to the largest population of poor in the world, India has been a natural candidate for experimenting with micro finance as a tool for poverty alleviation. With a nationalized formal banking sector that has emphasized rural and developmental banking for several decades now, India’s involvement with small credit targeted primarily at the rural poor is hardly new. Micro-credit, in the sense of small loans to the poor, is of ancient origin in India. Micro-Finance has, in recent times, come to be recognised and accepted as one of the new development paradigms for alleviating poverty through social and economic empowerment of the poor, with focus on empowering women. Experiences of different anti-poverty and other welfare programmes within the country and elsewhere, have shown that the key to its success lies in the participation of community based organisations at the grassroot level. People’s participation in credit delivery, recovery and linking of formal credit institutions to borrowers through the intermediation of Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been recognised as a supplementary mechanism for providing credit support to the rural poor. Poor people need micro-credit for various and different purposes. It may be to meet the major household expenses, emergency needs or even basic livelihood support.

429 - 440 (12 Pages)
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34 Role of Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises
H.S. Bisht

Role of Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises Engage in promotion & development of MSME’S in the country through framing proper policies and schemes. Implementing policies and schemes through its attached office DC, MSME, Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi. 

441 - 450 (10 Pages)
INR80.00 INR72.00 + Tax
 
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