Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) have emerged as a significant force in the business landscape of Odisha and India as a whole, offering a novel approach to development. For the first time since independence, farmers are establishing their own companies using their own produce, and with proper business processes and communication, they are equipped to build and manage their own business ecosystem and enterprise based on their farm production. FPOs not only offer opportunities for economic empowerment of farmers and farm women, but also have societal, cultural, and economic impacts. The FPO movement is gaining momentum, and there is a need for a reliable document that provides both motivational and methodological support based on empirical evidence. Other crucial aspects for FPOs include market analysis, customer behavior studies, market networking, supply chain management, branding, and value addition to make the agribusiness ecosystem thrive. Additionally, a thorough analysis of business leadership is essential for entrepreneurial mobilization and community participation. FPOs have the potential to liberate 125 million holdings, including small and marginal farmers, from poverty and uncertainty. The book, based on field research, presents an empirical model that can be utilized by administrators, scholars, policy makers, faculty members, KVK scientists across disciplines and professions.
Albeit we achieve green revolution, we had a quantum jump of food grain production from 50 million tons to 130 million tons during seventies to set the nation free from begging bowl syndromes, yet a plethora of issues remained unsolved. Disruption of ecology and poor status of farm income which has been small, uncertain and frivolous needs to be redressed with utmost care and highest priority. Today's farmers need happy return which will be enough to meet basic minimum, secured and hassle free. So, they desperately need a company status of their own to showcase their product and harvest the happy return. Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) is one of the greatest institutional innovation for the much needed transformation of subsistence farming into entrepreneurial farming in India. The FPOs provides dream, desire and destiny of the farmers on field or in their family, in the state or national level. They are the instrument of fulfilling their dreams, executing their desire into actions and making agriculture a dependable means to survive and to win.
Albeit a mammoth volume of food grain production in India, 320 million tons and close to 350 million tons of vegetables production in 2023 evinces the emergence of mighty Indian agriculture over the geo-political expanse at global level, yet the income from agriculture to her 140 millions of farmers is not secured, persistent and satisfying. This is due to a mal orchestration of weather-market-job-technolgy uncertainties. The farmers producer organization offers them a new hope and aspiration for small-marginal tiny agricultural producers of India.
To tackle modern-day challenges and attain a sustainable growth while managing farm enterprises, the farmers have to undergo rigorous behavioral change to transform themselves as entrepreneur. Thus, the present chapter deals with incorporating an understanding about the idea of an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship and the organization level, present status and promotional opportunities of FPOs. 2.1 Who is an Entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is someone or a group of individuals who conceptualize, start, and sustain for a long enough period of time a social organization that provides financial rewards, or, to put it another way, who see a business opportunity and create a firm to pursue it. (Cole,1968)
In any scientific investigation and research, a comprehensive review of literature is very essential. Its main function, apart from determining the work done before concerning the problem area i.e., area of investigation, to provide an insight into the methods and procedures and create a basis for interpretation of findings. As direct references of all the items are not in abundance, certain specific references along with some indirect references have been incorporated in this chapter for the purpose of meaningful use. In the present study, reviews of literature have been summarized in the following table
4.1 Research Setting In any social science research, it is hardly possible to conceptualize and perceive the data and interpret the data more accurately until and unless a clear understanding of the characteristics in the area and attitude or the behavior of people is at commend of the interpreter who intends to unveil an understanding of the implication and behavioral complexes of the individual who live in the area under reference and form a representative part of the larger community. The socio-demographic background of the local people in a rural setting has been critically administered in this section. A research setting is a surrounding in which input and elements of research are contextually imbibed, interactive and mutually contributive to the system performance. Research setting is immensely important in the sense because it is characterizing and influencing the interplays of different factors and components.
Research methodology is a detailed plan of investigation and the blue print of procedure for carrying out the research. In this chapter, discussion on the methodology has been made to understand the concepts, methods and techniques, which are utilized to design the study, collect information, analyzing data and interpreting the findings for revelation of truth and formulation of theories. The entire chapter has been broken up under following sub-heads for easy understanding: Locale of research Sampling design Pilot study Variables and their measurements Methods of data collection Statistical tools used for analysis of data
Table 6.1: Descriptive Statistics of Variable with respect to Minimum, Maximum, Range, Mean, Standard Deviation of Values, Variance, and Coefficient of Variance Result: Table 6.1 presents the distribution of 24 independent variables (x1-x24) and 8 independent variables (y1-y8) in terms of their range, mean, standard deviation and co-efficient of variance. Revelation: The distribution pattern of variable, age, depicts that the minimum age of the respondents is 25 and maximum is 80. The mean age is 49.830 with S.D 13.954. The Coefficient of variance (CV) is 28.003 per cent which indicates that the distribution pattern of the variable is highly consistent. The distribution pattern of variable, education, depicts that the minimum education of the respondents is 0(illiterate) and maximum is 12 (12th standard). The mean education is 7.650 with S.D 3.043. The Coefficient of variance (CV) is 39.778 per cent which indicates that the distribution pattern of the variable is fairly consistent. The distribution pattern of variable, no. of enterprise, depicts that the minimum number of respondents is 2 and maximum is 9. The mean no. of enterprise is 3.820 with S.D 1.388. The Coefficient of variance (CV) is 36.338 per cent which indicates that the distribution pattern of the variable is fairly consistent.
The present research had been conducted to study the Entrepreneurial behaviour of farmers in farmer producer organisations(FPO) in selected block of Odisha and in the end the comparison is made. The study had been conducted on 2 Farmer producer organisations (FPO) of Ranpur block from Nayagarh district of Odisha. A pilot study was conducted to understand the area,its people, institution ,communication and extension system of these states. An exhaustive list of respondents was prepared critically with the help of FPO members. From the list, 100 respondents were selected for the study through Snowball sampling method. The primary data were collected with the help of structured interviewschedule by following the personal interview method. The secondary data werecollected from our departmental library, internet, Department of Agriculture, Odisha, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya ,etc.for establishing the conceptual framework of the study.
Abeyrathne, H.R.M.P. & Jayawardena, L.N.A.C.(2014). Impact of group interactions on farmers' entrepreneurial behaviour. Ekonomie and Management. 17:46-57. Acharya, S.K. & Roy, S. (2021). Entrepreneurial Communication in Agriculture. Ahuja, Rakesh., Singh, S., Sangwan, S.S. & Gautam.(2021). Entrepreneurial behaviour of dairy farmers in haryana. Amitha, C., Savitha, B., Sudha Rani, V. & Laxminarayana, P. (2021). Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) - Analysis of Profile of FPOs and Its Members in Medak District of Telangana. Current J. App. Sci. and Tech. 24-31. Battu, P., Acharya, S.K., Kanagaraj, M. & Haque, M. (2022). Entrepreneurial behaviour of Self Help Groups: Enterprise, Income and Efficiency. J. of Comm. Mobil. and Sust. Devt. 17(1) :329-332. Bhatt, R.S., (1974). Growth of entrepreneurship in small and medium sectors. The Indian J. Pub Admini. 20(3) :453-465.
