Agriculture Based Entrepreneurship to Empower the Women to Enhance the Income for Livelihood
Basant Bais*, Jorawar singh and Lokesh Tak
Department of Livestock Products Technology, India
Submission: April 01, 2018; Published: May 30, 2018
*Corresponding author: Basant Bais, Professor and Head, Department of Livestock Products Technology, College of Veterinary and Animal Science, RAJUVAS, Bikaner, India, Email: basanthbias@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Basant B, Jorawar s, Lokesh T. Agriculture Based Entrepreneurship to Empower the Women to Enhance the Income for Livelihood. Curr Trends Biomedical Eng & Biosci. 2018; 14(5): 555898. DOI: 10.19080/ CTBEB.2018.10.555898.
Introduction
Women make substantive contributions to all the agricultural activities encompassing crop production, dairying, animal husbandry and fisheries. Their engagements are visible across the value chain. It must be appreciated, that they do this along with their responsibilities as home makers. The art and science of multi-tasking that women possess is invaluable. Men in comparison are not par the course. Yet, the contributions of women go unheard, untold and unsung. Rendering the situation more sordid, there is so much needed to be done to give them the social status that is rightfully theirs.
Women can become exemplary entrepreneurs, only if their innate talents are made professional through appropriate training to link up with markets and meet the laid down standards. As entrepreneurs, they will come to handle the money directly and claim the rightful position at home and in society [1-5].
Meaning of Agriculture based Enterprises
The term enterprise under secondary agriculture must be understood with reference to economically productive and farm-oriented activities that generate income. From a gender perspective Agriculture based Enterprise represent an opportunity for women to gain direct access to income when they may have limited avenues for alternative employment. From the perspective of economic empowerment micro-enterprises provide the women a platform for developing and exercising competence in managing an activity, handling funds, taking responsibility and taking decisions.
By promoting Agriculture based Enterprise the work-production relations open up and women can justifiably select the sector for generating income [6-8].
The added advantages of promoting Agriculture based Enterprise are as follows:
i. Generate additional income that will lead to savings and improve investment capacity.
ii. Empower women as decision –makers.
iii. Build scope for women as information seekers and help them overcome the fear of failure and provide access to peer support.
Insight into Women as Agriculture Based Entreprenuers
i. They become prime actors in income generating activities, helping them become powerful instruments in socio-economic upliftment of their family
ii. They can become vocal as they gain economically.
iii. Women are capable of shifting their domestic management skills to enterprise management.
iv. Women who enter in an entrepreneurial role are often confronted with resistance from family and face various challenges.
v. Women will be called upon to balance and harmonise their multiple roles as household managers, family nurturers and entrepreneurs.
vi. They must weigh the strengths and weakness of an enterprise along with their personal likes and resources before starting the enterprise.
Planning for Women’s Agriculture based Enterprises
i. Start with exposure visit to the market or sharing of experiences of other entrepreneurs to provide a platform for awareness generation and decision-making.
ii. Make women feel confident regarding their contribution to the activity both in terms of time & skill output and economic gain by planning out appropriate training strategies.
iii. Provide simulation games for awareness generation on transaction of and making money, assessment of day–to-day market conditions, decisions, decision.
iv. Provide education on quality parameters and need for maintaining certain quality parameters for end use or sale of product/produce.
v. Identify a basket of enterprises that would be suitable to women. There are many activities that involve value addition, which women take for the family. Some examples are pickle making, juice making etc. which can easily be escalated as micro-enterprises.
References
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- GoM (2000) Report on agricultural census 2000–2001.Maharashtra State. India: Department of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra
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