Attitude of agricultural students towards agripreneurship development and its relationship with their profile characteristics

Introduction

Agriculture plays a vital role in the Indian economy by providing livelihood to a large proportion of the rural population. However, increasing unemployment among agricultural graduates and declining profitability in farming have highlighted the need to promote agripreneurship as a means of generating employment, enhancing income and ensuring sustainable agricultural development. Agripreneurship encourages agricultural graduates to establish enterprises in agriculture and allied sectors, thereby transforming them from job seekers into job creators (Bairwa et al., 2014) [3] . The success of agripreneurship largely depends on the attitude of agricultural students towards entrepreneurial careers. A favourable attitude motivates students to identify business opportunities, adopt innovations and undertake entrepreneurial ventures. This attitude is influenced by several socio-personal, educational and psychological characteristics such as academic achievement, innovativeness, self-confidence, risk-taking ability, decision-making ability and family background (Ajzen, 1991; Hisrich et al., 2020) [1,5] . Agricultural universities play an important role in developing entrepreneurial competencies through education, skill development and practical exposure. Therefore, understanding the attitude of agricultural students towards agripreneurship development and its relationship with their profile characteristics is essential for designing effective entrepreneurship development programmes.

Objectives 1. To study the attitude of agricultural students towards agripreneurship development. 2. To determine the relationship between the profile characteristics of agricultural students and their attitude towards agripreneurship development.

Methodology

The study was conducted at Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (SDAU), Sardarkrushhinagar, Gujarat using an ex-post facto research design. A total of 176 undergraduate agricultural students were selected through purposive sampling from three constituent colleges, namely C. P. College of Agriculture, Sardarkrushhinagar, College of Agriculture, Tharad, and College of Agriculture, Bhuj. Data were collected through personal interviews using a pretested structured interview schedule. The schedule included items on the respondents' profile characteristics and their attitude towards agripreneurship development. The attitude of agricultural students towards agripreneurship development was measured using the attitude scale developed by Bai (2016) [2] with minor modifications to suit the objectives of the present study. The variables were selected based on an extensive review of literature and expert consultation. The collected data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and correlation analysis to assess the attitude of agricultural students towards agripreneurship development and its relationship with their profile characteristics.

Results and Discussion

Agripreneurial attitude of agricultural students towards agricultural enterprise

An attitude refers to the feelings, beliefs and predispositions of individuals or groups towards a particular idea, practice, or innovation. It encompasses their mental state, disposition, or orientation that influences their behaviour and decision-making. It is evident from the table 1 that 59.10 per cent of the agricultural students had favourable attitude towards agricultural entrepreneurship followed by 23.86 per cent of the students with highly favourable and 17.04 per cent of the students with unfavourable towards agricultural entrepreneurship. It is concluded from the table 1 that majority of the agricultural students had favourable attitude towards agricultural entrepreneurship. It might be due to reason that most of the students pursuing agriculture may have genuine interest in farming or any other related fields, making them more inclined towards entrepreneurship in agriculture and due to various opportunities for self-employment and job creation Many governments offer support, provides incentives and resources for agricultural entrepreneurship, making it an attractive option for students to develop a positive attitude towards agricultural entrepreneurship. The present findings are in agreement with the findings of Bai (2016) [2] , Jayasudha and Shantha Sheela (2018), and Sane (2017) [11] , who also reported that agricultural students generally possessed a favourable attitude towards agricultural entrepreneurship. The relationship between the selected profile characteristics of agricultural students and their attitude towards agripreneurship development is presented in Table 2. The results revealed that self-confidence (r = 0.154), *decision-making ability (r = 0.191), and mass media exposure (r = 0.182) had a positive and significant relationship with the attitude of agricultural students towards agripreneurship development at the 5 per cent level of significance. This indicates that students possessing higher selfconfidence, better decision-making ability and greater exposure to mass media tended to exhibit a more favourable attitude towards agripreneurship development. Self-confident students are more willing to undertake entrepreneurial ventures, while effective decision-making skills facilitate the evaluation of business opportunities and entrepreneurial risks. Similarly, greater mass media exposure enhances awareness of government schemes, successful agripreneurs, innovative technologies and market opportunities, thereby fostering a positive entrepreneurial attitude. These findings are in accordance with Bai (2016) [2] and Priyanka (2019) [10] , who reported that self-confidence and exposure to information sources positively influenced students' entrepreneurial attitude. Further, innovativeness (r = 0.257**) and risk-taking ability (r = 0.225**) exhibited a positive and highly significant relationship with students' attitude towards agripreneurship development at the 1 per cent level of significance. This suggests that innovative students with a greater willingness to take calculated risks are more likely to possess favourable attitudes towards agripreneurship. Entrepreneurial activities inherently involve innovation and uncertainty; therefore, these characteristics are essential for developing entrepreneurial orientation among agricultural students. Similar findings were reported by Thakkar (2020) [12] , who observed that innovativeness and risk-taking ability significantly contributed to entrepreneurial orientation among agricultural students. On the other hand, gender, caste, academic achievement, father's education and father's occupation did not show a significant relationship with the attitude towards agripreneurship development. This implies that demographic and family background characteristics alone may not substantially influence students' entrepreneurial attitude. Instead, psychological and behavioural characteristics appear to play a more important role in shaping positive attitudes towards agripreneurship. The nonsignificant relationship of demographic characteristics with entrepreneurial attitude is supported by the findings of Krishna (2017) [7] .

Relationship between the profile characteristics of agricultural students and their attitude towards agripreneurship development

Conclusion

The study revealed that the majority (59.10%) of agricultural students possessed a favourable attitude towards agripreneurship development, indicating a positive inclination towards entrepreneurial activities in agriculture. The relationship analysis showed that self-confidence, innovativeness, risk-taking ability, decision-making ability, and mass media exposure had a positive and significant relationship with the agripreneurial attitude of agricultural students. In contrast, gender, caste, academic achievement, father's education, and father's occupation did not show any significant relationship with their attitude. The findings suggest that psychological and communication-related characteristics play a more important role than demographic factors in shaping students' agripreneurial attitude. Therefore, strengthening these attributes among agricultural students can enhance their entrepreneurial orientation and encourage them to pursue agripreneurship as a viable career option. The findings support earlier reports emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurial competency development among agricultural graduates (Bairwa et al., 2014; Hisrich et al., 2020) [3,5] . Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are suggested: 1. Agricultural universities should organize regular Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs), workshops and hands-on training to strengthen students' entrepreneurial attitude. 2. Educational programmes should focus on developing selfconfidence, innovativeness, risk-taking ability and decisionmaking skills, as these characteristics were found to be significantly associated with agripreneurial attitude. 3. Greater use of mass media and digital platforms should be encouraged to disseminate information on successful agripreneurs, government schemes, startup opportunities and innovative agricultural enterprises. 4. Agricultural students should be provided with practical exposure through agribusiness incubation centres, field visits, internships and interactions with successful agripreneurs to enhance their entrepreneurial competence and motivation. 5. Policymakers and agricultural universities should strengthen institutional support by facilitating mentorship, startup guidance, financial literacy programmes and access to entrepreneurship support schemes for aspiring agripreneurs.

References

1. Ajzen I. The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 1991;50(2):179211.
2. Jobner, Rajasthan: Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University; 2016.
3. Bairwa SL, Lakra K, Kushwaha S, Meena LK, Kumar P. Agripreneurship development as a tool to uplift agriculture. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications. 2014;4(3):1-4.
4. Ministry of Education, Government of India. National Education Policy 2020. New Delhi: Government of India; 2020.
5. Hisrich RD, Peters MP, Shepherd DA. Entrepreneurship. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2020.
6. Jayasudha J, Shantha Sheela M. Attitude of agricultural students towards agricultural entrepreneurship. Madras Agricultural Journal. 2021;108(1-3):151-154.
7. Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh: Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University; 2017.
8. Anand, Gujarat: Anand Agricultural University; 2005.
9. Pradhan K, Talukdar P. Empowering the rural people through entrepreneurship development and management. Journal of Crop and Weed. 2014;10(2):135-140.
10. Parbhani, Maharashtra: Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth; 2019.
11. Sane NJ. Attitude of post graduate students towards agriculture entrepreneurship [master's thesis]. Akola, Maharashtra: Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth; 2017.
12. Thakkar MG. Entrepreneurial intentions of agriculture and allied sciences students of Gujarat. Indian Journal of Extension Education. 2020;56(4):241-245.
13. Thakur NB, Prajapati JD, Rupapara K. Attitude of post graduate students towards agriculture entrepreneurship. Gujarat Journal of Extension Education. 2017;28(2):293295.