Kashmir an agro-based economy with around 65 percent of its population depends on agriculture to make a livelihood. In such a scenario, agriculture has to be seen as agribusiness and not merely a way of life. Unless technology is blended with agri-entrepreneurship, the productivity would continue to remain low as in the traditional methods of farming and agribusiness. Apart from generating new sources of jobs and income, it is equally important to bring about transformational change in the agribusiness sector to augment incomes, create more sub-industries within the agricultural sector and help the rural poor add to their agricultural resources.
Most agricultural outliers in Kashmir are forced to migrate to nearby towns in search of work, often in the unorganized unskilled sector. This highlights the need for developing more innovative mechanisms in the rural economy that boost employment opportunities in the agriculture sector. Entrepreneurs who can transform the face of the rural economy have failed to emerge in rural Kashmir.
Not only in developing alternative sources of employment, entrepreneurship can also help radicalise farming techniques and bring innovation to improve yields per hectare. Smart farming is the need of the hour. The sectors that can benefit hugely from entrepreneurial intervention are food processing and packaging, preservation of seasonal fruits and vegetables, seed processing, flower farming in addition to crop farming etc. Agro-based industries can flourish in rural sectors where labour is abundant. Small and medium enterprises set up at rural level to supplement traditional farm income in a big way and create alternative sources of income.
Sectors where entrepreneurship can help the agribusiness:
1. Floriculture
In a number of cases, flower farming can be done on small tracts of land. In fact, bulks of flowers are cultivated on ‘micro farms’. Farmers can utilize a part of their land to cultivate seasonal flowers alongside regular conventional crops. But, this needs markets in the vicinity or processing and preservation units. Entrepreneurs having knowledge of flower cultivation and marketing can set up parallel industries in fertile rural lands.
2. Pisciculture
Fish farming is practised by a lot of farmers to augment their incomes. However, they do on an amateurish and small-scale basis. A conscious business effort to develop small pond fish farms in rural areas can enable Pisciculture to become a valuable sector in the rural economy. Fish cultivation on market scale needs some knowledge and boosting entrepreneurship in the sector can make a difference.
3. Farm technology
Dependence on outdated and inefficient technologies leads to poor productivity and low income. While most farmers in the state still rely on age-old farming techniques with mostly manual methods. Boosting entrepreneurial minds in agriculture can boost productivity by incorporating modern technologies in the farming sector.
Conclusions
Agriculture has and been the chief source of livelihood of the state since time immemorial and is the biggest activity engaging 65 percent of the total workforce in the state. However, inadaptability of modern agricultural practices is prevailing even in today’s time which may be construed upon the state traditions and cultural practices and reasons more. The questionable unavailability of high yielding seeds and the reluctant approach to the usage of a heavy dosage of industrial chemicals contribute largely to the poor agriculture output in the state. Despite the enormous potential opportunities availability for the growth and survival of small-scale farmer entrepreneur in the state, the state’s environment also exhibits certain mesmerising challenges to the state small-scale farmer entrepreneurs, which could be seemingly averted if proper intervention from the state government and the society, in general, take to the shift of negative to positive mindset. It is important that another window is opened from which ideas can be formulated to offer valuable assistance to the small-scale farmers especially in the creation of a marketing platform for their products.
The author is a PhD scholar at Jaipur National University’s School of Business and Management