Asian Agri-History

Rinumoni Buragohain ¹, Nivedita Deka ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Agricultural Economics, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat – 785013, Assam, IN

Abstract

Among various ways of empowering women, agriculture based entrepreneurship viz., agripreneurship is considered to be one of the best options. Assam’s economy is largely rural agrarian, which is characterized by high rate of work participation of women. In this paper, certain potential areas for development of agripreneurship by women in Assam are discussed. The paper describes mushroom production, vermin-compost production and floriculture businesses as some of the agripreneurship ventures through which women can economically empower themselves. Inherent traditional knowledge and self-motivated women must come forward for venturing into the agripreneurship. A SWOC analysis ofwomen agripreneurship in Assam is also given in the paper. A shift from agriculture to agribusiness is an essential pathway to revitalize Indian agriculture and to make it more attractive and profitable venture. Agripreneurship has the potential to contribute to a range of social and economic developments such as employment generation, income generation, poverty reduction and improvements in nutrition, health and overall food security in the national economy. Thus sustainable agripreneurship ventures are seen to have a potential to promote job-led economic growth in rural areas by harnessing technologies for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable development which can provide a decent livelihood. Against the existing scenario and considering that two-thirds of the Indian population is employed (directly or indirectly) in agriculture sector, agripreneurship in Indian agribusiness stands out as an imperative for generating employment in the country.

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