Livestock Research for Rural Development 19 (1) 2007 Guidelines to authors LRRD News

Citation of this paper

Entrepreneurial behavior of rural women farmers in dairying: a multidimensional analysis

B Subrahmanyeswari*, K Veeraraghava Reddy** and B Sudhakar Rao***

Department of Veterinary and AH.Extension, NTR college of Veterinary Science, Gananvaram-521 102 (AP) - India
*on Study leave for PhD at IVRI, Izatnagar - 243122. Bareilly (UP), India
**ANGRAU, Hyderabad-30
*** Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-30
subramext@gmail.com
(Part of MVSc research work by the first author)

Abstract

This study was conducted by following ex-post facto research design and random sampling technique in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. A total of 120 respondents comprising of 61 small, 35 medium and 24 large rural women farmers in dairying were selected by proportionate random sampling technique.

The results revealed that majority of the dairywomen farmers possessed medium entrepreneurial behavior and variation among the three categories of the respondents was found to be significant (P<0.01). Entrepreneurial behavior was positively and significantly related with land holding (P<0.01), material possession (P<0.01), management orientation (P<0.01), value orientation (P<0.01), income from dairy farming (P<0.01), education (P<0.05) and innovativeness (P<0.05). Most of the variation in entrepreneurial behavior was explained by the variables namely dairy farming experience, social participation, training received and income from dairy farming.

Key words: Contributory factors, entrepreneurial behavior levels, rural dairywomen farmers


Introduction

"Just as a bird couldn't fly with its one wing only,
a nation could not march forward if the women are left behind.
India has a tradition of women playing important role
in the advancement of civilization"

Swami Vivekananda

The women folk can easily be considered as backbone of any nation and better half of the men in almost all spheres of community development, of which India is not an exception. Rural women, who constitute about 50 % of total rural population, play an active role in all spheres of economic life and contribute richly towards national income. Of the major rural enterprises, dairy enterprise has been regarded as an important instrument of economic and social change to supplement the income and employment to the rural sector in general and rural women in particular.

The government of India report indicates that 85 per cent of rural women are engaged in livestock production (Viswanathan 1989). Various micro level studies highlight women's significant role in dairy production (Waghmare and Chaudari 1989; Jain and Verma 1992; Prakash Singh et al 2005). The future of dairy industry lies in regenerating the local ecology with maximum participation of women entrepreneurs. Unemployment still continues to be the most baffling problem in India, despite its rapid social and technological progress and increase in the level of literacy, where the question of women entrepreneurship assuming its significance. Entrepreneurship is a form of human resource and entrepreneurial behavior depends on a number of factors like skill, knowledge of the enterprise, risk taking ability, achievement motivation, exposure to mass media, trainings received, and moreover, with innovativeness of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial behavior can be attributed as the change in knowledge, skills and attitude of entrepreneurs in the enterprise they have taken up. In Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, majority of rural women are actively involved in dairy enterprise through women dairy cooperatives. The present study was undertaken with specific objective to study the entrepreneurial behavior of rural women farmers involved in dairying, the factors contributing towards entrepreneurial behavior and its association with their personal and socio-economic traits.
 

Materials and methods

The study was conducted in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. Six villages from three mandals were randomly selected and a total of 120 dairywomen farmers were selected by proportionate random sampling method from three categories based on their milch cattle possession (Reddy 1996). Thus 61 small farmers (with 1 milch cattle), 35 medium farmers (2-3 milch Cattle) and 24 large farmers (3 and above) were taken as respondents. The data was collected through personal interview and was analyzed by using suitable statistical techniques. Dairy entrepreneurial behavior index was constituted with eight components selected out of 15 components, basing on weighted mean score as per experts' ratings i.e. subject matter specialists from Livestock Production Management and Veterinary Extension (Table 1).

Table 1.   Selection of the components for the study by weighted mean method

S.No

Components

Weighted mean score

1.

Innovativeness

2.80*

2.

Risk Orientation

2.74*

3.

Decision making ability

2.44*

4.

Achievement motivation

2.54*

5.

Information seeking behavior

2.48*

6.

Knowledge of the enterprise

2.80*

7.

Utilization of assistance

2.02

8.

Cosmopolitness

1.92

9.

Market orientation

2.04

10.

Result orientedness

2.28

11.

Managerial assistance

2.08

12.

Ability to coordinate activities

2.14

13.

Leadership ability

2.14

14.

Self confidence

2.77*

15.

Scientific orientation

2.44*

* Components selected for the study (weighted mean score equal or above 2.40)

Constitution of entrepreneurial behavior index

After careful perusal of relevant literature and intensive consultation with the experts in the field of livestock production, veterinary extension resulted in 15 components which are normally considered as components in entrepreneurial behavior were listed out. Out of these 15 components, eight components were identified as most relevant to constitute entrepreneurial behavior index through weighted mean score method given by 35 judges out of 40 judges from livestock production and veterinary extension from different universities through mailed questionnaire as following:

Thus, an entrepreneurial behavior index was constituted with eight components i.e. 'innovativeness, self confidence, risk orientation, achievement motivation, information seeking behavior, scientific orientation, knowledge level of dairy farming activities and decision making ability' to measure the level of entrepreneurial behavior among the three categories of dairywomen farmers.


Results and discussion

Socio-economic profile of dairywomen farmers

Most of the dairywomen farmers among the three categories were with medium level of social participation, whereas, very few of them had high level of training ( Fulzele and Meena 1994 ; Bhatt 1995). (Table 2).

Table 2.   Socio-economic characteristics  of dairywomen farmers

S.No

Character

Level

Category of dairywomen farmers

Small, F %

Medium, F %

Large, F %

1.

Social participation

Low

3  (5.00)

4 (11.0)

3 (12.5)

 

 

Medium

51 (83.5)

25 (71.0)

16 (66.5)

 

 

High

7  (11.5)

6 (18.0)

5 (21.0)

2.

Training received

Low

27 (44.0)

15 (43.0)

11 (46.0)

 

 

Medium

19 (31.5)

10 (28.5)

9 (37.5)

 

 

High

15 (24.5)

10 (28.5)

4  (16.5)

3.

Land holding

Low

32 (52.8)

11 (31.4)

9 (36.0)

 

 

Medium

25 (41.7)

19 (54.3)

12 (50.0)

 

 

High

4 (5.55)

5 (14.3)

3 (14.0)

4.

Dairy income

Low

36 (59.0)

7 (20.0)

5 (21.0)

 

 

Medium

21 (34.5)

18 (51.5)

7 (29.0)

 

 

High

4 (6.50)

10 (28.5)

12 (50.0)

Psychological profile of dairywomen farmers

Majority of the dairywomen farmers (table 3) were with medium level of value orientation as well as management orientation which might be due to their experience in dairy farming and medium level of social participation (Reddy 1995).

Table 3.  Psychological  characteristics  of dairywomen farmers

S.No

Character

Level

Category of dairywomen farmers

Small, F %

Medium, F %

Large, F %

1.

Management  orientation

Low

11 (18.0)

6 (17.0)

3 (12.5)

 

 

Medium

47 (77.0)

22 (63.0)

14 (58.5)

 

 

High

3  (5.00)

7 (20.0)

7 (29.0)

2.

Value orientation

Low

14 (23.0)

5 (14.0)

4 (16.5)

 

 

Medium

36 (59.0)

21 (60.0)

12 (50.0)

 

 

High

11 (18.0)

9 (26.0)

8  (33.5)

3.

Adoption of dairy practices

Low

16 (26.0)

11 (31.5)

6 (25.0)

 

Medium

32 (53.0)

18 (51.5)

8 (33.0)

 

 

High

13 (21.0)

6 (17.0)

10 (42.0)

Dairywomen farmers could able to adopt dairy production practices only to some extent; the reason might be due to their religious beliefs and continuation of traditional practices (Goswami et al 2000)

Levels of entrepreneurial behavior among the three categories of rural dairywomen farmers

It is evident from table 4, that most of rural dairywomen farmers were found to have medium level (50.00 %) of entrepreneurial behavior followed by high (29.00%) and low (21.00%) levels of entrepreneurial behavior.

Table 4.   Levels among three categories of rural dairywomen farmers

S. No

Category

Small, F %

Medium, F  %

Large, F %

Total F %

1.

Low

16 (26.0)

4(11.0)

5 (21.0)

25 (21.0)

2.

Medium

32(53.0)

22 (63.0)

6 (25.0)

60 (50.0)

3.

Large

13 (21.0)

9 (26.00

13 (54.0)

35 (29.0)

 

Total

61 (100.0)

35 (100)

24 (100)

120 (100)

      Mean = 146.40                                                                                         S.D= 21.43

The data further revealed that in case of dairywomen farmers under small category, majority (53.00%) of them had medium entrepreneurial behavior followed by low level (26.00%). This trend may be due to difference in milch cattle possession, experience in dairy farming, social participation, management orientation and adoption of dairy innovative practices.

Relative contribution of entrepreneurial behavioral components among the three categories of dairywomen farmers

The results indicated (Table 5) that 'achievement motivation' and 'decision making ability' were among the first two ranks, whereas, 'innovativeness' and 'risk taking ability' got the least importance among small and medium dairywomen farmers.

Table 5.   Ranking of components according to their relative contribution to entrepreneurial behavior among the dairywomen farmers

S.No

Items

Categories of dairywomen farmers

Small

Medium

Large

%

Rank

%

Rank

%

Rank

1.

Self confidence

74.0

III

77.5

III

85.0

I

2.

Decision making ability

74.5

II

78.0

II

82.8

II

3.

Achievement motivation

75.5

I

80.5

I

70.0

VII

4.

Knowledge of the enterprise

71.0

V

73.0

V

81.5

III

5.

Information seeking behavior

71.5

IV

74.0

IV

78.5

IV

6.

Innovativeness

64.5

VII

65.8

VII

74.8

VI

7.

Risk taking ability

60.0

VIII

62.0

VIII

78.0

V

8.

Scientific orientation

65.0

VI

66.5

VI

63.0

VIII

Achievement motivation is the desire or need to excel in reaching a certain goal. Naturally farmers with 1-2 milch cattle and a small land holding will have the desire to extend their farm and to increase their economic levels, which might be the reason for the achievement

Achievement motivation is the desire or need to excel in reaching a certain goal. Naturally farmers with 1-2 milch cattle and a small land holding will have the desire to extend their farm and to increase their economic levels, which might be the reason for the achievement motivation being occupied first position out of eight components. Farmers with good rational decision making ability naturally possess more self confidence, but it appears that limited income and resources of small and medium farmers might be acting as a limiting factor keeping the self confidence in the 3rd position.

Low level of literacy, limited participation in social activities and moreover, lack of awareness about different information sources availability and their utilization, small herd size and limited financial status might have constrained them hence, as such showing the positions of information seeking behavior (IV), scientific orientation (VI) and innovativeness (VII). Small and medium category farmers could not venture to take risks for the fear of incurring losses in their enterprise, which might be the reason for the component 'risk taking ability' to be in the last position of its relative contribution towards entrepreneurial behavior.

Among the category of large dairywomen farmers, self confidence (I), was contributing most towards their entrepreneurial behavior, reason being they were with good herd size, land holding and income and they naturally have resourcefulness in carrying out any activity with much self confidence. Decision making ability was at 2nd position, as the large dairy farmers by virtue of their large size units and sound financial position could venture and act immediately by taking quick decisions. Education coupled with experience participation in social activities and contact with external sources of information might have made them knowledgeable in dairy enterprise which greatly contributed to their entrepreneurial behavior. Large dairywomen farmers could venture to take risks and can withstand uncertainties of risks taken as compared to small and medium categories of dairywomen farmers. These dairywomen farmers might have developed passive attitude towards the technology generated due to dissatisfaction with the technologies adopted earlier with the result being the attributes innovativeness and scientific orientation ( VI and VIII positions) contributing little towards their entrepreneurial behavior.

Difference in the levels of Entrepreneurial behavior among three categories of rural dairywomen farmers by means of Analysis of Variance,'t' test and Critical difference

The analysis of variance and 't' test values depicted in table 6, 7 and 8 showed that the 'F' values among the three categories of dairywomen farmers and 't' values and C.D values between any two groups were significant (p<0.01).

Table 6.   Analysis of variance

Source of variation

Df

Sum of squares

Mean squares

F values

Between groups

2

45963.19

22981.59

308.68**

With in groups

117

8710.75

74.45

 

Total

119

54673.95

 

 

** Significant at 0.01 level



Table 7.  ‘t’ values

S.No

Mean

‘t’ values

1.

Small farmers 131

Medium farmers 149

10.10**

2.

Small farmers 131

Large farmers 182

28.57**

3.

Medium farmers 149

Large farmers 182

14.24**

** Significant at 0.01 level



Table 8.   Critical difference (CD)

S.No

Mean

C.D values

1.

Small farmers 131

Medium farmers 149

18.83**

2.

Small farmers 131

Large farmers 182

51.40**

3.

Medium farmers 149

Large farmers 182

32.57**

** Significant at 0.01 level

Based on this, it could be inferred that three categories of dairywomen farmers differed significantly with respect to their entrepreneurial behavior. These findings are in line with the findings of Goud (1990) and Gopalakrishna Rao (1985). This might be due to different farm sizes, which is an important factor in providing impetus to dairy farmers to produce more, since in large dairy farms production, profit maximization as well as introduction of technological changes and innovations are possible and moreover, the three categories of dairywomen farmers were also differing in terms of their self confidence, information seeking behavior, and innovativeness which are predisposing factors of entrepreneurial behavior.

Relationship and contributory factors of socio-economic and psychological variables of rural dairywomen farmers towards Entrepreneurial Behavior by means of correlation and regression analysis

Small and medium farmers with small herd size might have concentrated more on dairy farming activities and rely more on their experience to do their job successfully with a good entrepreneurial behavior. Social participation and value orientation and might have enabled large and medium dairywomen farmers respectively and training in case of small category dairywomen farmers to access to a number of information sources to become richer in knowledge and skills thereby better entrepreneurial behavior.

Land holding found to have negative significance with the entrepreneurial behavior ( table 9) reason might be that farmers with small land holdings were able to concentrate more on dairy enterprise to meet their family requirements as well as to increase their socio-economic status.

Table 9.   Relationship between personal, socio-economic and psychological variables and entrepreneurial behavior of rural women dairy farmers (N=120)                                                           

S.No

Variable

Correlation coefficient

Over all

Category of rural dairywomen

Small

N=61

Medium

N=35

Large

N=24

1.

Age

0.06

0.06

0.10

0.03

2.

Dairy farming experience

0.26*

0.34*

0.46

0.03

3.

Education

0.15

0.04

0.42*

0.20*

4.

Social participation

0.08

0.06

0.49*

0.17

5.

Land holding

-0.34**

0.09

-0.46*

0.34

6.

Material possession

0.18

0.17

0.25

0.32**

7.

Management orientation

0.26*

0.37*

0.62**

0.30**

8.

Value orientation

0.04

0.62**

0.24

0.42**

9.

Training received

0.27*

0.02

0.22

0.01

10.

Dairy income

0.01

0.16

0.69**

0.74**

11.

Adoption of dairy practices

0.04

0.02

0.06

0.24

**Significant at <0.01                                                                                    * Significant < 0.05

Management orientation is nothing but scientific dairy farm management with planning, production and marketing as its major functions. Naturally farmers with good management orientation show a related entrepreneurial behavior only.

Table 10.   Multiple linear regression analysis of personal socio-economic characteristics with entrepreneurial behavior of rural women dairy farmers (N=120)

S.No.

Variable

Category of rural women farmers

Small

Medium

Large

Over all

bi

t

bi

t

bi

t

bi

t

1.

Age

0.22

1.24

0.66

2.93*

0.06

0.39

0.03

0.16

2.

Dairy farming experience

0.08

2.47*

0.59

1.91

0.08

0.35

0.10

2.53*

3.

Education

1.70

1.72

0.74

0.87

0.22

0.31

0.36

0.38

4.

Social participation

0.35

0.16

6.34

2.77*

0.00

0.01

3.23

2.78*

5.

Land holding

0.41

0.26

1.48

1.48

0.12

0.23

0.48

0.48

6.

Material possession

0.12

0.66

0.07

0.49

0.07

0.88

0.08

0.58

7.

Management orientation

0.03

2.68*

0.27

0.89

0.05

2.26*

0.55

1.51

8.

Value orientation

0.02

0.04

1.79

2.77*

0.45

1.61

0.87

1.77 

9.

Training received

0.14

2.25*

0.02

0.21

0.00

0.03

0.05

2.67*

10.

Dairy income

0.00

0.16

0.00

2.14*

0.00

2.36*

0.00

3.89*

11.

Adoption of dairy practices

0.10

0.34

0.18

0.78

0.12

0.51

0.31

1.20

 

R2= 0.53
R=0.7

R2=0.62
R=0.78

R2=0.63
R=0.79

R2=0.61
R=0.78

*Significant at <0.05 level

The data presented in table 10, suggest that the variables namely experience in dairy farming, social participation, management orientation, training received in dairying, value orientation and income from dairying were found to be the chief contributory factors towards entrepreneurial behavior of dairywomen farmers to the extent of 61 per cent.
 

Conclusions


References

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Received 20 August 2006; Accepted 16 September 2006; Published 1 January 2007

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