A study on entrepreneurial behaviour of agri-input dealers in upper Brahmaputra valley zone of Assam
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Date
2023
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Abstract
Agriculture is the backbone of economy because of its high share in
employment and livelihood generation. Agricultural inputs are the inputs like, seeds,
fertilizers, pesticides, equipments, animal feeds, machineries etc.that are used in farm
production. The person who provides agricultural inputs along with some agro advisory
services to the farmers are the Agri Input Dealer. The agri-input dealers play an important
role in ensuring that farmers access their necessary inputs for improving productivity in
their respective farms. While purchasing the inputs, farmers seek for information from agri
input dealers about the usage of inputs, both in terms of quality and quantity.
The study was undertaken in two districts of Assam namely, Jorhat and
Golaghat. A descriptive research design, following an ex-post facto approach was utilized
for the study through a simple, purposive, and random sampling design. A total of 130
respondents were selected for the study. 40% respondents from each district were selected.
With respect to profile characteristics of the respondents, the study revealed
that majority of the respondents (63.846 %) belonged to the middle-age category. Near
about half of the respondents (46.93%) had completed graduation and PG level of
education. Majority (60%) of the respondents belonged to small sized family. Most of the
respondents (40.77%) had 6-10 years of experience as an agri-input dealer. Around half
(54.62%) of the respondents received 1-2 nos. of training programmes. Majority (80.76 %)
of the agri-input dealers have received training on pest and disease control in agriculture.
Around half (50.769%) of the respondents had marginal land holding and one third
(33.85%) of the respondents had 2-4 lakhs of annual income from dealership.
With regards to entrepreneurial behaviour of the respondents, the study
revealed that majority (64.62%) of the respondents had medium level of innovativeness,
medium level of achievement motivation ( 53.85% ), medium decision making ability (
72.3% ), medium level of risk orientation (63.845%), medium level of co-ordinating ability
(56.93%), medium level of planning ability (50.00%), medium level of information
seeking behaviour (69.23%), medium level of cosmopoliteness (63.07%) and medium
level of self-confidence(63.85%). With the help of Entrepreneurial Behaviour Index (EBI),
entrepreneurial behaviour of agri-input dealers was calculated and came into the
conclusion that majority (64.62%) of the respondents had medium entrepreneurial
behaviour followed by high entrepreneurial behaviour (16.93%) and low entrepreneurial
behaviour (18.46%).
To determine the relationship between entrepreneurial behaviour and some
selected independent variables, correlation and multiple regression analysis was used.
Among 7 independent variables, 5 variables viz. age, education, years of experience as an
agri-input dealer, nos. of training received, annual income received from dealership
showed significant relationship with the entrepreneurial behaviour of agri-input dealers at
0.01 level of probability. In multiple regression analysis, it was found that among 7
independent variables, 5 variables viz. age, education, years of experience as an agri-input
dealer, nos. of training received, annual income from agri-input business contribute
significantly towards variation in the entrepreneurial behaviour of agri-input dealer at 0.01
level of probability.
With regards to problem, the study showed that86.92% of respondents were
facing problem due to complex procedure for procurement of inputs for the farmers. To
combat this problem, any other procedure of maintaining log record other than Aadhar
linking must be initiated by the government or must fix the glitches in the current
system.83.07% were facing problem due to less demand of agri-inputs which is because of
erratic rainfall which disturbs the cultivation practices of farmers in their fields. Proper
irrigation facilities should be provided to the farmers to deal with this problem. Other
problems faced by the input dealers are- “loss incurred by them due to lack of getting quick
information about banning of pesticides”, “unscrupulous sale of agri inputs by the non
licensees to the farmers”, “more market competition” etc.
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