Developing Social Entrepreneurial Culture for Enhancing Rural Empowerment through Agribusiness in India

Abstract

Agriculture is main source of livelihood for majority of people in rural India. It accounts for nearly 23
percent of the country GDP but supports more than 66 percent of the country's population. Rural areas
suffer from severe unemployment and chronic poverty. The agricultural growth in the country has been quite
low and fluctuating. The growth in this sector substantially affects the growth of overall economy. In
general, farmers are poor and lack purchasing power. The economic reform process and advent of WTO has
opened opportunities for value addition in agriculture but most of the farmers still follow traditional
farming practices due to lack of entrepreneurial ability to realize the potential of emerging agribusiness
opportunities. The government has taken several initiatives to empower rural people through decentralized
governance but political empowerment alone will not be sufficient unless the rural masses can get economic
empowerment. Hence, promotion of agribusiness as value addition in agricultural products through
development of micro-enterprises can help in increasing rural employment opportunities and income to
bring rural empowerment in real sense.