By Sumeet Biswas
The term agri-preneurship is a very commonly used portmanteau in the domain of a gri-business. In this section of the ABC blog, we aim to highlight various gaps in agricultural sector that have been or can be plugged by entrepreneurs via some innovative ventures. To set the context right, this article specifically talks about what you can expect from this section of the blog in the coming future.
To begin with let us identify the arena first. A country where 563 million1 people engaged in agriculture, 52% of whose land is cultivable (as against the 11% aggregate cultivable land in the world) and which experiences all the 15 major climates of the world has every reason to be the food bowl of this world. Unfortunately, that is not the case. India’s agriculture sector stands third after China and USA in terms of real value added to economy ratings.
It will be unfair to look at agri-sector independently. It has backward and forward linkages with secondary and tertiary sectors. Secondary sector in terms of production, manufacturing, fabrication, construction etc. facilitates operations of other two sectors. Tertiary sector takes the onus of providing infrastructural support to rest of the two sectors. We highlight the broad segmentations across all these three sectors as follows:
Primary Sector:
Agri-input: despite being the backbone of many businesses still happens to be in need for standardization and hence presents an opportunity for an entrepreneur to cater to that need for that standardization. Some examples to quote would be bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides, vermin-compost etc.
Secondary Sector
FMCG products: a domain on which many conglomerates have built up gigantic business empires, still holds enormous scope for an individual to venture into.
Dairy: despite of stronghold of AMUL and numerous regional government run cooperatives, the doodh vala bhaiya still happens to be in business, indicating the non-exhaustive nature of formalized milk selling business in India.
Tertiary sector
Micro-finance: there are over 3000 institutions operating in micro-financing in India. However due to localized nature and small scale of at least 99% * of these institutions, the facilities entertained by these institutions have been mainly restricted to loans only. There exists scope to explore options like savings, insurance etc.
Service Providers: These include the input procurement and distribution, hiring of implements and equipment like tractors, seed drills, sprayers, harvesters, threshers, dryers and technical services such as installation of irrigation facilities, weed control, plant protection, harvesting, threshing, transportation, storage etc.
Marketing: Post harvest process related to all the outputs derived from agri and associated sectors.
In a recently held entrepreneurial talk by Prof. Samir Shukla (a serial entrepreneur) at IIM Ahmedabad, it was mentioned that opportunities lie literally anywhere and everywhere, be it building a warship or a comb. The generic statement applies very well to agri-sector as well.
Looking at the present scenario, sector wise agri-preneurship breakup is roughly as shown
Here we broadly try to list down all the major field of opportunity that are directly or indirectly associated with agri-preneurship.
1. Food Grains 2. Vegetables 3. Fruits 4. Green House 5. Herbal Plantation 6. Agro Forestry 7. Floriculture 8. Organic Farming 9. Dairy and Animal Husbandry 10. Grading | 11. Seed processing 12. Food Processing 13. Cold Storage 14. Value addition 15. Logistic 16. Herbal Produce cleaning 17. Agro-tourism 18. Landscaping 19. Natural dyes/ colors 20. Farm equipment (manf. And repair) |
Having laid out the enormous scope, it is also our responsibility to highlight the possible challenges that await you, if you decide to take the leap of faith.
Lack of incubation system for entrepreneurship
Lack of risk mitigation or incentives for start ups
Implementation constraints of policies promoting entrepreneurship
Process bottlenecks in terms of bureaucracy
Sensitization of implementing officers in field/front officers
And definitely a lot more. Keep tuned to this space for posts about various successful and not so successful ventures in the agri-business domain.
References
1. AGRIS: International Information System for the Agricultural science and technology - http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201300620534
2. Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals – www.isapindia.org
3. One-Prosper - http://www.oneprosper.org/?gclid=CN-O2snj8LwCFSwF4god1QUA-g
4. Agricultural Entrepreneurship: The Concept and Evidence - K.V.S.M. Krishna, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad
Lack of incubation system for entrepreneurship
Lack of risk mitigation or incentives for start ups
Implementation constraints of policies promoting entrepreneurship
Process bottlenecks in terms of bureaucracy
Sensitization of implementing officers in field/front officers
And definitely a lot more. Keep tuned to this space for posts about various successful and not so successful ventures in the agri-business domain.
References
1. AGRIS: International Information System for the Agricultural science and technology - http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201300620534
2. Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals – www.isapindia.org
3. One-Prosper - http://www.oneprosper.org/?gclid=CN-O2snj8LwCFSwF4god1QUA-g
4. Agricultural Entrepreneurship: The Concept and Evidence - K.V.S.M. Krishna, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad