FACTORS AFFECTING PARTICIPATION INAGRICLINIC AND AGRIBUSINESS CENTRES IN SOUTH INDIA

Dr. Rajashekhar Karjagi, Dr. H. S. S. Khan and Dr. H. S. Vijaykumar, Department of Agricultural Marketing, Cooperation and Agribusiness Management, UAS, Dharwad-580005

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PROBLEMS OF TRAINED AGRIPREUNERS UNDER THE SCHEME OF AC AND ABCs IN STARTING AND RUNNING THEIR AGRIVENTURES – A STUDY IN SOUTH INDIA

Rajashekhar Karjagi[1], Khan H.S.S.[2], Vijaykumar H.S.(3) and Ramappa K. B.(4)
14 PhD scholars, Dept. of Agricultural Marketing, Co-operation and Agribusiness Management; 23 Professors, Dept. of Agricultural Marketing, Co-operation and Agribusiness Management, University of Agricultural Sciences, College of Agriculture, Dharwad, Karnataka 580 005

In the post green revolution era, however public extension finds itself unable to meet changing demands of farming community, tapped as it is in outdated, centralized, top-deacon institutional arrangements and constrained in terms of financial and human resources, lacking in skill and capacities. In this connection Ministry of finance Government of India announced a scheme of “Agriclinics and Agribusiness Centers” on February 28, 2001. This scheme is being implemented jointly by NABARD, MANAGE and SFAC since from 9th April, 2002 by launching this programme formally. After launching the scheme of AC and ABCs there are 67 AC and ABCs training centers are continuously providing the training to agricultural graduates on selected identified projects, but after getting the training no much progress was seen from the trained agripreneurs hence an attempt was made to study the problems faced by trained agripreneurs in establishing and running their agri ventures.

Out of 14 training centres in south India, 9 training centers were selected randomly by following proportionate sampling procedure. Hence, three centers from Andhra Pradesh, two centers from Karnataka, one center from Kerala and three centers from Tamil Nadu were selected. Fifteen trained agripreneurs were selected from each training institute to collect the information on problems faced by them in establishing and running their agriventures. Their suggestions on successful operation of AC and ABCs scheme was also collected from a total sample of 180 trained agripreneurs in South India.

To study the problems faced by the trained agripreuners in establishing and running their agri venture, the data was collected from 99 agripreuners, who have not started their agri venture. Similarly, the data on problems faced by agripreuners in running their agriventure was collected from 46 trained agripreuners, who have already established their agri venture.
The high rate of interest and lack of hand holdingsupport from the training institutes, bankers resistance to finance and NABARD and other commercial banks will not give correct picture about the rate of interest, subsidy and collateral security were the major problems faced by 83, 72, 71 and 70 agripreuners which accounts to 93.25 per cent, 80.89 percent, 79.77 per cent and 78.65 per cent respectively. The other problems faced by these agripreuners in establishing their agri venture were bankers not responding to the proposals (77.52%), many banks do not know about the scheme of AC and ABCs (75.28%), high margin money (68.53%), lack of support from the family (67.41%) and fear of collection of money from the farmers (66.29%). Problems like lack of business and field experience, fear of sales, long procedures involved in getting the bank loans, huge risk involved, dry land ares business runs only in seasons and employment in private/government sectors were responded by 64, 4, 61, 79, 59, 58, 56 and 8 per cent of the agripreuners respectively.

With respect to the problems faced by the agripreuners who have established their agri ventures, heavy competition from well established and other old dealers in the business was the major problem faced by 39 agripreuners (85%) followed by farmers ask the products on credit basis, non-cooperation of the farmers in repaying their credit and insufficient cash in hand while starting the business as responded by 36, 34, and 31 agripreuners which accounts for 78 per cent, 73 per cent and 67 per cent respectively. The other problems faced by them were illiteracy and lack of knowledge of farmers (54%), Lack of support from the family (46%), marketing and infrastructure (43%), low investment (41%), no direct dealership from the company (39%) and non-possession of land for demonstration (6%).

The most important suggestion given by the trained agripreuners were to link the training institute with financial institutions for loan snction followed by banks should follow the guidelines of RBI, subsidy component should be included in the scheme, AC and ABCs should be treated on par withgovernment agriclinics (Raita samparka Kendra) in distribution of seeds and other inputs to the farmers on subsidized rates, as these things were suggested by 91, 67 and 65 respondents which amounts to 67, 49 and 48 per cent respectively. The other suggestions given by them were to concentrate more towards providing training on need based economically viable projects by putting trainees under inplant training for 15-20days. Training has to be provided only to the interested candidates, training should not be given free of cost and not to encourage NGOs and private training institutes as they are not capable to train efficiently, which was suggested by 63, 57, 56 and 53 agripreuners and that accounts to 46, 42, 41 and 39 per cent respectively. Government should promote agricultural graduates to start agriclinic at every gram panchayat level, encourage to allocate both central and state government farm lands (which are under loss due to improper management due to lack of resources) to agripreuners on contract basis, increase the duration of the training programme, frequent interactions, better coordination and get together of agripreuners at least quarterly once and scheme should be put to final year B.Sc.(Agri) RAWE programme which fecilitates them to learn management skills were some other suggestions made by the trained agripreuners for the successful operation of AC and ABCs in the study area.

High rate of interest, lack of subsidy component and lack of hand holding support from the training institutes were the major problems faced by the agripreuners in establishing their agri ventures. Whereas, heavy competition from the well established dealers, non-cooperation of the farmers in repaying the credits and insufficient cash in hand while starting the business are the major problems in running their agri venture were the major problems faced by the agripreuners who have already established their agri ventures. The major suggestions given by the trained agripreuners includes linking the financial institutions with training institutions, banks should follow the guidelines of RBI and private agriclinics should be treated on par with the government agriclinics especially in distribution of seeds and other inputs on subsidy basis.

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