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Topic Name: Introduction To Agribusiness Articles

This article discusses micro agribusiness and rural entrepreneurship in Pakistan. It notes that traditionally, agriculture was more of a family activity rather than commercial business, limiting investment and development. However, agriculture is increasingly becoming a business sector, with many micro-enterprises emerging. Most agribusinesses are small, employing just a few people on average. The success of agribusiness depends on qualified entrepreneurs who can effectively run small rural enterprises. Developing entrepreneurship in rural areas could help lift communities out of cycles of subsistence farming and increase economic opportunities.

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Adee Khan
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56 views6 pages

Topic Name: Introduction To Agribusiness Articles

This article discusses micro agribusiness and rural entrepreneurship in Pakistan. It notes that traditionally, agriculture was more of a family activity rather than commercial business, limiting investment and development. However, agriculture is increasingly becoming a business sector, with many micro-enterprises emerging. Most agribusinesses are small, employing just a few people on average. The success of agribusiness depends on qualified entrepreneurs who can effectively run small rural enterprises. Developing entrepreneurship in rural areas could help lift communities out of cycles of subsistence farming and increase economic opportunities.

Uploaded by

Adee Khan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Topic Name: Introduction to Agribusiness Articles

Subject Name: Introduction to Agribusiness

Course Code: BBAA 309

Submitted By: Adeel Khan

Submitted To: Sir Manan Aslam

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture


Multan.
DAWN

A profile of micro agribusiness


Manan Aslam

THE present status of rural entrepreneurs was recently


highlighted during a training program organized by the
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.
The focus of the exercise was to share current trends and
contemporary ideas in managing rural entrepreneurs for
improving agricultural sector in the Asian countries.
Participants from the region attempted to formulate a
policy for providing input to policymakers so that
agriculture could be developed, and, for which,
improving performance of rural entrepreneurs was
necessary.
Traditionally, agriculture was taken as a family line of
work rather than a commercial activity. This is why the
sector and its related activities could not develop fast on
a sound basis. And as such insufficient investment flowed
towards this sector.
The agribusiness principally comprises micro-enterprises.
The average small-town venture has slightly more than
the two workers. On the other hand, a village enterprise
employs an average of 1.74 workers including hired
labor, paid and unpaid family workers. Just three per
cent of the non-farm enterprises in small towns and one
per cent in the villages have more than five workers. A
sizeable majority of labor in town and village enterprises
comprises family workers. Almost 24 per cent of small
town enterprises report hiring of workers, compared to
merely 12 per cent of village enterprises.
Agriculture is moving towards business activity and
agribusiness sector is gaining its roots in the rural sector
attracting many entrepreneurs.
However, given some peculiarities and technicalities in
agribusinesses many potential entrepreneurs are shy in
venturing into this sector.
The success of an agribusiness largely depends on well-
organized, effectual and qualified entrepreneurs capable
of running small rural enterprises. Encouragement of
rural entrepreneurship is an imperative aspect of rural
economic and the community development. There is a
need to impart entrepreneurial skills to farmers so that
they can tap various marketing opportunities in their
local communities.

It is the time to inculcate entrepreneurship in rural


localities and to pull them out of ‘grow-eat-grow’ cycle
by extending financial support and promoting new
technologies.

One of the key factors for economic development and


well-being in the rural localities can be rural
entrepreneurship — an activity that introduces a new
product, creates or serves a new market or employs a
new technology. Given that the rural-based agricultural
enterprises can play a key role in the economic
development, it is essential that they flourish and
develop.

The rural society is facing challenges of high population


growth rate and youth migration to urban areas. These
societies are usually characterized by a low educated and
less skilled workforce and weak entrepreneurial culture.
A majority of rural economic development programs and
strategies do not focus on business retention,
development and establishment of new business through
entrepreneurial skills. Supporting local rural
entrepreneurs is thus crucial as they utilize local
resources, improve accessibility of products and build
networks. Moreover, rural entrepreneurship will create
jobs, accelerate incomes, generate wealth and improve
the quality of life and well-being of rural communities.

From the viewpoint of rural development, the greatest


benefit of an enterprise creation comes from
improvement in efficiency, expansion of total output and
diversity of the productive base. Rural entrepreneurs
create income opportunities not only for themselves but
also for other landless and deprived classes. In the case
of rural enterprises in particular, an added benefit is to
be able to reside in rural localities rather than migrating
to urban areas.

With the decreasing share of agriculture in the gross


domestic product, it becomes more important that
opportunities in the agricultural sector should be
explored. There is a dire need to give work opportunities
in the rural localities by intensification of agribusiness
sector.

Rural development has been a primary agenda of many


governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
and academic institutions. Various programs and
initiatives have been undertaken for accelerating the
pace of development in rural areas. However, these
programs could not bring significant changes due to lack
of tested sustainable models which are generally based
on the subsidies and grants whereas entrepreneurship
development is based on the skills and business plans.

The writers are faculty members at Institute of Business


Management Sciences, University of Agriculture,
Faisalabad.

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