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JULY 2020
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this MBA thesis entitled “Rural and Social
Entrepreneurship; Cases from Bihar and Jharkhand” was carried out by
me for the degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
(AGRIBUSINESS) under the guidance and supervision of Mr. Kumud Ranjan
(Asst. Professor), FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, GNSU,
JAMUHAR (SASARAM).
I wish to sincerely thank all those who have contributed in one way or another
to this study. Words can only inadequately express my deep gratitude to my
guide, Mr. Kumud Ranjan (Asst. Professor), for her meticulous care, kindness
and generosity. Her fruitful comments and insightful suggestions have been a
crucial formative influence on the present study. He has supported me in every
possible way since the beginning of my research. His critical and careful
reading of my writing has saved me from a lot of errors. Without his guidance
and encouragement, my research would have never come out in the present
form. I have seen in his an unpretentious and devoted scholar. Furthermore, it
has been a memorable and enjoyable experience for me to work with him..
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Alok Kumar, the Dean of the
college, for his incessant inspiration, expert guidance, invaluable suggestions,
and, above all, his moral support.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................2
SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE.................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................8
DATA ANALYSIS..............................................................................................9
CASE STUDY OF SAMRIDDHI...................................................................9
Evolution of Samriddhii.................................................................................10
Mission and vision.........................................................................................11
Social entrepreneurship: potential for transformation...................................11
Simplified organisation structure...................................................................12
Innovative three tier business model..............................................................14
Growth and innovations.................................................................................16
Economic development of Bihar...................................................................19
Samriddhii and its competitors......................................................................20
Future prospects.............................................................................................21
DATA ANALYSIS............................................................................................22
Q1. Age of Respondents?..............................................................................22
Q2. What is your gender?..............................................................................23
Q3. Family type of the respondents?.............................................................24
Q4. Family size of the respondents................................................................24
Q5. Caste/Religion of the respondents...........................................................25
Q6. Martial status of the respondents............................................................25
Q7. Language known by respondents............................................................26
Q8. Educational qualifications of respondents..............................................26
Q9. Do you have your agricultural land........................................................27
Q10. Size of land that you have( in (acre)....................................................27
Q11. Where the land is irrigated or non irrigated.........................................28
Q12. Are you first generation entrepreneur or not.........................................28
Q13. What is your business?.........................................................................29
Q14. Duration of your business( in (years)...................................................30
Q15. What is your initial investment for this business?...............................30
Q16. From which of the following sources you availed finance..................31
Q17. Your Annual Income (approximate)....................................................32
Q18. Employment opportunities created by your business..........................33
FINDING...........................................................................................................34
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................35
APPENDIX........................................................................................................36
REFERENCES..................................................................................................41
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1
INTRODUCTION
Social entrepreneurship in terms of operation and leadership could be
applicable to non-profit organizations as much as for-profit social enterprises
although in terms of activities and legal entity they are very different.” Models
for social entrepreneurship in India are Social for-profit enterprise, non-profit
and hybrid model, which are discussed in detail in the following sections.In
addition to the above-mentioned models, other ways of creating impact in India
are through philanthropy and through Corporate Social Responsibiliy. India has
been regularly receiving global philanthropic money. Recently there has been a
rise in local contributions from wealthy individuals with short and long-term
vision. A new breed of high-net-worth individuals from the corporate sector is
looking at investing philanthropic money in the form of grants and impact
investments. Currently strategic philanthropy in India is still at a nascent
stage.The practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India still
remains within the philanthropic space, but has moved from institutional
building (educational, research and cultural) to community development. With
the communities becoming more active and demanding paired with global
influences, CSR is becoming more strategic in nature (i.e. getting linked with
business than being philanthropic). By discussing a company’s relationship to
its stakeholders and integrating CSR into its core operations, the impact needs
to go beyond communities and beyond the concept of philanthropy. This opens
up big opportunities for the development sector to unlock local capital for not
only solving short-term social problems but also investing into long-term social
entrepreneurship. With the new Companies Act Bill 2013 every company with
either:
● a net worth of INR 500 crore (c.78 milion US$) or
● a turnover of INR 1,000 crore (c.157 milion US$) or
●net profit of INR 5 crore (c.783’350 US$) needs to spend at least 2% of its
average net profit for the immediately preceding three financial years on
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
Over 5 decades of independence of India and even after industrialization, the
agricultural sector till continue to be the backbone of our economy and our
society too. Other core feature of the agricultural workforce is that their share
in total workforce of the country is about 70 percent. One of the negative
results the agriculture workforce is that this sector is overcrowded as far as
employment is concerned. Again the continuous increase in population is
definitely obscurity to the rural development. Whereas urban migrations of the
farm-workers also have negative impact like unemployment problem and
2
increased numbers of population below poverty line. Entrepreneurship in rural
areas is finding a unique blend of resources, either inside or outside of
agriculture. This can be achieved by widening the base of a farm business to
include all the non-agricultural uses that available resources can be put to or
through any major changes in land use or level of production other than those
related solely to agriculture. Thus, a rural entrepreneur is someone who is
prepared to stay in the rural area and contribute to the creation of local wealth.
Moreover the economic goals of an entrepreneur and the social goals of rural
development are more strongly interlinked than in urban areas. For this reason
entrepreneurship in rural areas is usually community based, has strong
extended family linkages and a relatively large impact on a rural community.
Thus the rural entrepreneurship is a vital for rural economic development.
There are several reasons for the increasing interest in entrepreneurship
especially in rural regions and communities. ¨The rural entrepreneurs play
important role in driving local and national economies. The structure of rural
economies is essentially composed of small enterprises, which are responsible
for most of the job growth and the innovation. Moreover, small businesses
represent an appropriate scale of activity for most rural economies. ¨Traditional
approaches to recruitment and retention are just not working for most places,
and states are looking for viable alternatives which mainly include
entrepreneurship. Rural entrepreneurs have successfully diversified into or
started new businesses in markets as diverse as agri-food, crafts, recycling,
leisure and health.
According to researchers, while rural communities need entrepreneurs in order
to revitalize their economies, entrepreneurs are dependent on the community
for access to capital and other professional services. Entrepreneurs and
communities are interdependent; the challenge for both lies in their ability to
recognize the other’s unique needs.
3
SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE
The objectives of the study are
To understand the core benefits of rural entrepreneurship.
To identify and analyze about various problems faced by rural
entrepreneurs.
To suggest the remedial measures to solve the problems faced by rural
entrepreneurs.
To analyze the major challenges faced by rural entrepreneurship in
Bihar and Jharjhand
To understand the need for managerial caliber to resolve the issues in
rural entrepreneurship.
To study the basic framework of social entrepreneurship.
To underline the role and responsibilities of social entrepreneurs.
To list the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs in context.
To give suggestions on problems and challenges faced by social
entrepreneurship.
4
LITERATURE REVIEW
Social entrepreneurship as a practice that integrates economic and social value
creation has a long heritage and a global presence.
The global efforts of Ashoka, founded by Bill Drayton in 1980, to provide
seed funding for entrepreneurs with a social vision (http://www.ashoka.org);
the multiple activities of Grameen Bank, established by Professor Muhammad
Yunus in 1976 to eradicate poverty and empower women in Bangladesh
(http://www.grameen-info.org); or the use of arts to develop community
programs in Pittsburgh by the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, founded by Bill
Strickland in 1968 (http:// www. manchesterguild.org):
Williams (1999) argued that interest in entrepreneurship as a field of study was
crucially stimulated by community leaders’ belief that entrepreneurship was a
defining trend of the 21st century. Similarly, we observe that the rise of
scholarly interest in social entrepreneurship goes hand in hand with an
increasing interest in the phenomenon among elites.
(Busenitz, West III, Sheperd, Nelson, Chandler, &Zacharakis2003).
Entrepreneurship played a significant role in economic growth, innovation, and
alleviating poverty. And awareness regarding entrepreneurship is needed. In
many of the developing countries is questionably the least studied.
Entrepreneurship may affect economic growth in various ways. They may
introduce important innovations by entering markets with new products or
production processes. Entrepreneurial phenomena aimed at economic
development have received a great amount of scholarly attention
(Alvord, Brown, & Letts, 2004; Boschee, 1995; Dees and Elias, 1998;
Thompson, 2002) Entrepreneurship as a process to foster social progress has
only recently attracted the interest of researchers). The development of social
entrepreneurship as an area for research closely resembles the development of
research on entrepreneurship itself. Social entrepreneurship as a social
problem-solving endeavour is emerging as a socially innovative business model
for the required social transformation and change in the whole world.
Considering its assumed potential for solving the social problems, the arena of
S-ENT is receiving significant attention from both scholars as well as
practitioners globally.
(Peredo and McLean, 2006; Thompsonet.el., 2000)Social entrepreneurship is
exercised where some person or persons (1) aim either exclusively or in some
prominent way to create social value of some kind, and pursue that goal
through some combination of (2) recognizing and exploiting opportunities to
5
create this value, (3) employing innovation, (4) tolerating risk and (5) declining
to accept limitations in available resources.
(Ana Maria Peredo, Murdith McLean,2006). Entrepreneurship development
in rural areas will go a long way in boosting the overall economic growth of
India. Entrepreneurship refers to the act of setting up a new business or
reviving an existing one by taking advantage of new opportunities.
(Poonam Bakhetia and Bhupinder Singh Dhillon, 2017).The research
analysing the importance of entrepreneurship in economic growth is increasing
across nations (Mir Shahid Satar,2016) Social entrepreneurship is not a newer
concept but the positioning of the concept has risen to new heights in recent
times. As government of India has made CSR a more realistic responsibility
than a mere formality, corporates are now looking for their grater roles in
helping the society in a way that is both economically and socially beneficial.
(Tripda Rawal, 2018).
E.D. Shetty (2002) documented a brief discussion of rural industrialization in
the prevailing economic situations and an overview of the kind of
industrialization in rural economy.
Kulawczuk (1998) argued that rural entrepreneurship occurs in economically
and socially depressed areas with inadequate infrastructure, economic
stagnation, low levels of education, low skilled workers, low income, and a
culture not supportive of entrepreneurship.
Leeds and Stainton (1978) defined micro entrepreneur as a person who
initiate production, takes decision, bears risks, involves, organize and
coordinates the other factors in their own prevailing rural conditions, economic
structure, social infrastructure and market forces. A.
Usha Devi (2004) explored the conceptual framework of rural area and rural
entrepreneurship and discussed the need for rural entrepreneurship in India and
the emerging entrepreneurs in the context of existing rural entrepreneurs in
India.
B.K. Pandey (2005) examined the rural micro-finance as development
initiatives and rural entrepreneurship promotional tool. M. Balasubramanian
(2004) highlighted entrepreneurial ambitions, compelling reasons, and
facilitating factors.
N. Namasivayam and S. Vijayakumar (2004) explored a complex and
varying combination of socio-economic, psychological and other factors. R. V.
Rao (2007) discussed about the strategy of rural development viz. improving
the economic conditions of the individual rural poor and investment to develop
6
overall rural economy to solve the problems of unemployment,
underemployment and poverty.
Mohanty, S.K. (2009) explored the rural entrepreneurship through poverty
alleviation programs and recommended measures to boost up rural
entrepreneurship.
Shetty (2002) analyzed the changes in entrepreneurial attitude orientation and
has measured attitudinal characteristics of rural Entrepreneurs as a result of
exposure with various entrepreneurial development and promotional programs
and activities by different agencies and institutions. He views rural
entrepreneurship as a pursuit of opportunities existing in the rural areas without
limiting oneself to the accepted within the existing norms and confines of an
organization.
Singh B Mnamboodiri K V N (2007) critically appraised the rural
unemployment in India and profiled the characteristics of rural entrepreneurs in
India.
Singh Kuldeep (2010) documented that in the Indian context, rural
entrepreneurship is one of the best solutions to eradicate the rural evils like
poverty, unemployment and the problems/challenges faced by rural
entrepreneurs in the shape of easy availability of credit and finance, shortage of
raw material,lack of market knowledge and inadequate infrastructure & support
system.
7
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology which is applied during the research study is
descriptive in nature The data collection of data is based on secondary and
primary basis and the research is strictly done to meet the objectives of present
research. The data which is furnished in the present study is based a structured
questionnaire and secondary data from various reports and studies. The sources
from where the data has been collected for the present study is listed below;-
Reports of various industrial agency like CII, ASSOCHEM,FCCI has
been duly referred for the study.
Research paper based on related topics has been taken for the inputs.
Web resources related to the topic have been used for the information.
8
DATA ANALYSIS
CASE STUDY OF SAMRIDDHI
Kaushlendra’s dilemma
The land of Bihar, which has been blessed to be the ‘vegetable capital of India’
is made up of the alluvial deposits gifted by the sacred river Ganges. Hence this
fertile part of the country is capable of producing vegetables in abundance (The
IIM Sabziwala, 2011). However, for lack of knowledge the farmers remained
poor.
These landless farmers worked for big landlords as bonded labour and were
deprived of even the basic needs. They were treated badly as an unwanted part
of the society (Kaushlendra). Moreover, the ownership of land remains with the
landlords on paper. The poor farmers could not get advantage of the subsidies
by government and other benefits. Because of this the exploitative practices
continued unabated. The example of Gulabchand, who used to distribute his
produce through unorganised channels, is an example of the farmers’
community as a whole.
This typical informal channel from local mandis to consumer via city mandis,
agents, wholesalers and retailers yielded nothing but deterioration and wastage
of the perishable products (Figure 1). As a result, the farmers like Gulabchand
fell prey to these middle men who only enjoyed the profits of their hard work.
The story of Meena Devi is another example of those hardworking women who
would start their day early at 4 am and having done initial sorting, sell the
produce by road side under the pressure of civil authorities, police and the local
mafia, thus trying to finish of the vegetables at throw away prices (Chandra,
2011).
9
Source: KGPL
The above cited two examples are just a sample of an unprecedented
exploitation of the Bihar farmers, who for long time had been fleeced by the
influential landlords and the bunch of middle men and mafia. This is a very
small depiction of the plight of these farm workers, who worked hard and
gained humiliation in return.
Witnessing the drudgeries of farmers and street vendors in his hometown,
Kaushlendra was in a state of desperation to uplift the status of the people in
Bihar. He had several key concerns. He was in a dilemma as to How to connect
the small, marginal farmers and street vendors to the mainstream market? How
to improve the standard of living of the poor farmers? What to do to curb the
exploitation of poor and illiterate farmers? How to transform the lives and
lifestyles of thousands of farmers and vendors of Bihar? What kind of training
to be provided to the farmers towards market oriented farming? How to
generate livelihood opportunities for the rural or urban poor?
Evolution of Samriddhii
Kaushalya foundation (KF), the brain child of Kaushlendra, was founded in
2007 as a non-government and non-profit organisation to help and enhance the
agro industry in the country with an objective to conjoin with state, financial,
academic and market foundations. It also formed a concert of voluntary
organisation and research bodies who were already engaged in agriculture
sphere with a view to elevate the life standards of rural agriculturists and food
sector people in a contextual manner. Samriddhii has been the outcome of all
these developments, which came into being on 31st December, 2007 through
Knids Green Pvt. Ltd. (KGPL), which is registered as a private limited
company under the Companies Act 1956. It has been a team work of
managerial brains from some of the top business schools who had acquired a
large amount of experience in the area of agri-business and retailing. KGPL
made its advent as a tiny outlet of pre-packaged farm fresh vegetables, an idea
never thought about ever. They had designed refrigerated push carts for this
unique selling methodology to ensure longevity of the produce to consumer
satisfaction. Thus came into being a new concept of vegetable supply chain
which helped to marshal in concentrating and consolidating this depolarised
vegetable sector of Bihar. Samridhii aims at delivering canonised and dignified
self-employment openings for the hitherto famished, destitute and indigent
sections of urban and rural population with a view to bulwarking a nourishing
and nurturing money earning and ameliorated quality of life. Samriddhii, a
unique concept of vegetable supply chain, focuses on mobilising and
10
organising informal and fragmented vegetable sector of Bihar. The goal of
Samriddhii is to provide opportunities for exalted self-employment for
impoverished sections of urban and rural population, safeguarding a sustainable
livelihood, enriched environment and improved quality of life for them.
Mission statement
“To develop a model to increase income and generate employment at
the grass root level by an equitable and holistic development.”
Vision statement
“Professionalizing the informal trade channel of fresh farm produce
and creating gainful, dignified self-employment for the families
dependent on agriculture sector.”
Source: http://www.knidsgreen.in
Social entrepreneurship: potential for transformation
12
Figure 3 Organisation structure
ADVISORY BOARD
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
a ) K a u s h le n d ra : M a n a g in g D ire c to r a ) Prof. P.K. Sinha: Professor of
b ) Anuj Kumar: Director Marketing, IIM Ahmedabad
c ) Dhirendra Kumar: Director b ) Capt. Pawanexhkohli: Principal
Consultant-Advisor at Cross Tree
Techno-Visors
c ) Prof. Vaibhav Bhamoria: Prof. of
CMA area, IIM Ahmedabad
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Kaushlendra Kumar
SUPERVISOR Marketing
FINANCES
DELIVERY
Interstate trade
PR O JEC T
IM P L E M E N T A T IO N PROCUREMENT
Sales
Quality
Source: KGPL
13
Innovative three tier business model
Kaushlendra has been fully aware that zeal of a social entrepreneur must be
punctuated by a pragmatic business model. Accordingly, he adopted a three
pronged business setup (Figure 4). The Samriddhii Grameen Kendra constitutes
the foundation as it collects the produce from the farmers carries out primary
sorting and grading. The produce is then transferred for processing into
packaged vegetables to the Samriddhii processing centre; the packaged
vegetables are then delivered to institutional clients, retail outlets, Samriddhii
AC Green Carts and Mom and Kirana stores for sale to end consumers. The
most important aspect of Samriddhii’s business model is the fixation of
company’s logo on the packages as a mark of assurance of authenticity. All of
these are the hallmarks of the background of the trained professional which
Kaushlendra is.
Figure 4 Establishment of Samriddhii supply chain components
Source: KGPL
14
Figure 5 Business model (see online version for colours)
F arm ers
E n d c o n su m e r
15
Source: KGPL
Samriddhii demonstrates the introduction of ‘creative destructive process’
described by Schumpeter (1942). The model of Kaushlendra’s company
combines the front end and backend processes of a supply chain system. While
procurement of vegetables from small and marginal farmers in the poor villages
of his native state of Bihar does away with intermediaries, processing and
packaging of the produce by the company adds value to the product (Figure 5).
Supply of vegetables to vendors completes the process to the benefits of both
the company and the rural growers (Bank of Ideas and Innovations:
Government of India.http://www.ruralinnovations.gov.in/kaushalya-
foundation.htm). “Processing and packaging of vegetables meets the yardstick
of shifting economic resources from lower to higher areas of productivity for a
greater yield”, as advocated by Say (1971).
The unique feature of this model was that, it was owned by the Samriddhii
members and was managed by professionals groomed from within the region.
Samriddhii Grameen Kendra was capable of handling a vegetable volume of as
much as 8–10 metric tons a day and coordinated between rural farmers, urban
vendors and the final consumers.
Growth and innovations
Since its very onset Samridhii has seen a rocketed growth in the sales turnover
from a mere 75,000 INR (2007–2008) only three months to a whooping
8,550,000 INR in 2008–2009, which is 114 times. This encouraging trend has
become a launch pad for the company which has never looked back since then.
They have on record sales turnovers amounting to INR 34,668,020 (2014),
39,538,486 (2015) and 42,585,256 (2016)
respectively.
These tables are sourced from the balance sheet and profit and loss account of
the company (Tables 1 and 2).
Headmost, dilated upon its business in four Bihar Districts viz. Vaishali,
Nalanda, Bhojpur and Patna, they had a chain of over 3,000 farmers
accoutering vegetables to the Grameen Kendra of Samriddhii. Resemblantly,
some 500+ vegetable vendors were reaping vegetables from the processing
centers of Samriddhii (KGPL).
Subsequently, Samridhii setup its foot in Uttar Pradesh through ORVEM, a
joint venture between local partner of Uttar Pradesh and KGPL Seven districts
namely Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Sultanpur, Rae Bareilly, Lucknow and
Barabanki.
16
Figure 6 Samriddhii AC Green Carts (see online version for colours)
17
Table 1 Balance sheet
As at 31st As at 31st As at 31st As at 31st
March March March March
2013 2014 2015 2016
Equity and liabilities
1 Shareholders’ funds
a Share capital 2,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000
b Reserves and surplus 76,498 –154,657 1,611,610 –1,658,829
c Money received -- -- -- --
against share warrants
2 Share application -- -- -- --
money pending
allotment
3 Non-current liabilities -- -- -- --
a Long-term borrowings 3,001,562 1,742,739 2,560,926 2,331,386
b Deferred tax -- -- -- --
liabilities (net)
c Other long- -- -- -- --
term liabilities
d Long-term provisions 1,867,670 1,659,331 1,232,538 947,387
4 Current liabilities
a Short-term borrowings 1,933,289 1,834,031 1,997,610 1,747,309
b Trade payables -- -- -- --
c Other current liabilities 128,266 531,788 12,360 391,360
d Short-term provisions -- -- -- --
9,007,284 7,613,232 6,191,824 5,758,613
Assets
1 Non-current assets -- -- -- --
a Fixed assets -- -- -- --
Tangible assets 5,083,141 4,277,010 2,606,757 1,864,584
Intangible assets -- -- -- --
Capital work -- -- -- --
in progress
Intangible asset -- -- -- --
under development
Fixed assets held -- -- -- --
for sale
b Non current investments 500,000 500,000
c Deferred tax assets (net) 75,072 172,990 526,154 606,432
d Long-term loans -- -- -- --
and advances
e Other non-current assets -- -- -- --
Assets
2 Current assets
a Current investments
b Inventories
c Trade receivables
d Cash and cash
equivalents
e Short-term loans and
advances
f Other current assets
18
Source: KGPL
Source: KGPL
The integrated vegetable value chains model ‘the Samriddhii model’ – a farm
to field model was recognised by National Horticulture Mission, Government
of India, which recommended it to the 28 states of India to adopt it.
Samriddhii model had been able to bring in various innovations in the existing
supply chain model including introducing Bamboo poly-houses, Pusa Zero
Energy Cool Chambers (PZECC), Integrated vegetable value chain and
Samriddhii AC Green Carts, to name a few. PZECC, a small storage structure
for storing produced vegetables, made up of bricks and sand. It uses simple
technology and does not require electricity to operate. Vegetable growers only
need to sprinkle water on sand to keep it wet to ensure cooling. ‘Poly house’ is
another such product which allows farmers to grow non-seasonal products and
earning better incomes (Singh, 2014).
Economic development of Bihar
Kaushlendra is a supreme example of grit and determination of a highly
educated social entrepreneur who has used his academic inputs for
transforming the lives of illiterate farmers, vendors and others in his native
state of Bihar. Being the native of the state and the son of a farmer has given
Kaushlendra a first-hand knowledge of the difficulties faced by small and
marginal farmers as well as vendors in plying their vocation.
Convenience people centricity and professionalism are embedded into the
business model of Samriddhii. The entrepreneurial drive undertaken by the son
of the soil has made a cost effective yet economically beneficial social impact
on the illiterate and exploited farmers and vendors. Through his social
entrepreneurship, Kaushlendra has pushed the income levels and social levels
of those engaged in small farming. The company has given the once deprived
section of the society a sense of inclusivity in the management of the company.
19
The farmers can now come together at the platform of Kisan clubs to share
knowledge about growing profitable variety of vegetables. The vendors have
been provided with AC vegetable carts wherein the produce can remain fresh
for a longer time period of up to five days (Gupta, 2010). The customer can
obtain fresh vegetables packaged with a bar code at fixed prices with the option
to return them if they found them to be stale or of bad quality.
Middlemen are unique to any supply chain system. Samriddhii’s intervention
reduced the length of the chain and vanished the large number of intervening
intermediaries. It saves the farmers as well as the small retail vendors from the
exploitation by the middlemen. Let it be emphatically noted that traditional
vegetable supply chain has always been marked by the presence of large
number of middlemen who take away a greater part of the profits of the
business.
Use of various innovations in the existing supply chain model that includes
Bamboo poly-houses, PZECC, integrated vegetable value chain and Samriddhii
AC Green Carts, etc. has reduced the cost of production.
According to The IIM Sabziwala (2011), this unique model of supply chain
system caters to the advantage of around 3,000 farmers from Patna and Nalanda
districts whereby some eight to nine thousand tonnes of vegetables are grown
and sold every month.
Samridhii not only generated and effectuated but also bettered, improved and
enriched employment occasions of Bihar women too. The illiterate females
were provided chances to engage themselves in activities like sorting, grading
and packing, which do not require any specialised education for obvious
reasons. This helped those so far ignored poor ladies to raise their living
standards. This further strengthened their skills as they could learn the use of
electronic weighing and packing machines. Some more responsible women
were assigned the projects of Poly houses. Samriddhii is able to provide direct
employment to around 300 people and has touched the lives of more than 6,000
farmer families in Bihar (akshay, 2013).
The farmers were enlightened about the environmental health of their farms by
dispensing the use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides. Adoption
of such echo friendly practices provided the soil a new life and made it more
fertile and rich in terms of produce. The Ganga waters worked icing on the cake
and recharged, refreshed and restored the dropped fertility rate precipitating in
unforeseen growth in produce and leading the farmers to the realm of financial
prosperity.
20
Samriddhii and its competitors
Like any other business organisation, Samriddhii too faced both direct and
indirect competition. Direct competition came from the traditional vegetable
supply chain and from high profile business houses (Table 3). The indirect
competition was faced from ready to cook food market. Only in recent years,
some big business houses like Reliance, ITC, Godrej, Namdhari Fresh,
Spencers, Food Bazaar, Wal-Mart and Metro, etc. had entered this business as a
back-end supply chain for their retail or food processing business (Anjaly and
Bhamoriya, 2011). These modern outlets and supermarkets gave tough direct
competition to Samriddhii in terms of convenience, professionalism, lowering
the wastage of the produce and quality of the vegetables. Despite of strong
competition, Samriddhii had an upper edge with respect to being more people
centric with positive social impact. The farmers enjoyed inclusivity, a sense of
being an integral part of the management at different levels. Samriddhii had
become the symbol of quality and quantity and ensured minimum wastage of
not only the vegetables but also, of human labour at the same time (SANKALP,
2011). Samriddhii also faced indirect competition with the companies making
ready to cook food and packaged food like Delmonte, Morton, Markfed and
Panama, etc. Apart from the above stated fierce competitive scenario with the
modern outlets, Samriddhii still has several strategic advantages over these
players.
Future prospects
As a result of the government encomium and commendations for uplifting the
financial prosperity, social status, security aspect and life style of the farmers to
heights beyond expectations, Kaushlendra and team set out to explore
tremendous potential (Table 3) to expand this successful model to the whole of
India.
Kaushlendra rightly believed in his mission to set free the poor vegetables
growers from the clutches of big landlords who would ingest the lion’s share of
their earnings thus leaving them to endure the desperation caused by such
malice practices. They also had some more questions which needed to be
answered, such as:
Would the Samriddhii model be commercially viable in the National and
International markets? Would they be able to market the vegetables and fruits
successfully internationally, while retaining their freshness? If so, what would
be the strategies needed and technology used in order to transport the
vegetables from Bihar to other parts of the country or to the international
markets?
21
DATA ANALYSIS
No. of Respondents
22; 37%
Interpretation
Most of the entrepreneurs are age between 28-33 years old, followed by the age
group above 33 which is 23% of the total respondents.
22
Q2. What is your gender?
No of respondents
7%
masle
female
93%
Interpretation
Above chart shows dominance of male which is 93% of total respondents.
23
Q3. Family type of the respondents?
No of Respondents
27%
HUF
Nuclear
73%
Interpretation
Above chart shows that most of respondents still live in HUF family .
No of Respondents
4; 7%
2 to 5
12; 20%
6 to 9
30; 50% 9 to 13
above
14; 23%
Interpretation
Above chart shows that most of respondents have small family size of 2 to 5
which is 50%.
24
Q5. Caste/Religion of the respondents
No of respndents
4; 7%
14; 23% Muslim
OBC
22; 37% SC/ST
Brahmin
20; 33%
Interpretation
Most of respondents the respondents are OBC and SC/ST which of 22 and 0
respectively.
No of Respondents
10; 17%
Yes
No
50; 83%
Interpretation
Above chart shows that 83% respondents are married and have a family.
25
Q7. Language known by respondents
No of respondents
10; 17%
Hindi
english
Both
50; 83%
Interpretation
As this study belongs to rural areas so most of respondents know hindi
language and few know both English and hindi.
No of Respondents
4; 7% Diploma
14; 23% Primary school
16; 27% Degree
PG
Job Oriented
4; 7% 16; 27% No schooling
6; 10%
Interpretation
Above chart shows that most of the respondents have done job oriented and
diploma course for staring a business.
26
Q9. Do you have your agricultural land
No of respondents
18; 31%
yes
No
41; 69%
Interpretation
Above chart shows that most of the rural entrepreneurs have their own land to
start or run their business.
No of respondents
6; 10%
6; 10% <1
1 to 3
4 to 5
10; 17% 36; 62% or above
Interpretation
Due to land distribution issue in India ,most of the respondents have less than 1
acre land.
27
Q11. Where the land is irrigated or non irrigated
No of respondents
18; 30%
irrigated
non irrigated
42; 70%
Interpretation
Above chart shows that more respondents uses their land which are used for
irrigation before it.
No of respondents
yes
No
60; 100%
Interpretation
Above chart shows all the 60 respondents are the first gen entrepreneurs .
28
Q13. What is your business?
No of respondents
18
16
16
14
12
10 9
8
6
6 5 5
4 4
4 3 3
2 2
2 1
0
s S es es e y p ft ll p r
te
l
on rs
ed PD iti or ag ac ho ra ta ou rlo ti he
se tiv St ar m s i c
it
s g r a Ho rta Ot
/ ac al G ar i lo
r nd ru p yP o
er er Ph Ta Ha /f hel ut sp
til
iz iry n lf -
Be
a
an
Da e le Se Tr
F er /G ab
ry t
ce ge
G ro Ve
Interpretation
Above chart shows that most entrepreneur do dairy activities followed by
grocery store and vegetable and fruit stall.
29
Q14. Duration of your business( in (years)
No of respondents
11; 18%
1 to 3
25; 42% 3 to 5
8; 13% 5 to 7
7 or above
16; 27%
Interpretation
Most respondents starting business nearly in 1 to 3 years.
No of respondents
Interpretation
Above chart shows that mostly rural entrepreneurs invest 50k and 1lakh to
starting a business.
30
Q16. From which of the following sources you availed finance.
No of respondents
2; 3%
6; 10% Government Rural Banks
14; 23% 4; 7% Co-op Bank
Private finance
Family support
Savings
Others
34; 57%
Interpretation
It is clearly showed from above table that most have their family support for
starting and running their works.
31
Q17. Your Annual Income (approximate)
No of respondents
4; 7%
14; 23% Less than `25000/-
25000/- to `75000/-
`75000/- to `125000/-
24; 40% `125000/- to `175000/-
Above `175000/-
18; 30%
Interpretation
Yellow color is showing the most respondent annual income is 25k to 75k.
32
Q18. Employment opportunities created by your business
No of respondents
6; 10% 1 person
14; 23% 2 person
12; 20% 3 person
4 person
5 person
6 and above persons
28; 47%
Interpretation
3 person are mostly employed by most entrepreneurs.
33
FINDING
Most of the entrepreneurs are age between 28-33 years old, followed by
the age group above 33 which is 23% of the total respondents.
dominance of male which is 93% of total respondents.
most of respondents still live in HUF family .
most of respondents have small family size of 2 to 5 which is 50%.
the respondents are OBC and SC/ST which of 22 and 0 respectively.
83% respondents are married and have a family. most of respondents
know hindi language and few know both English and hindi.
most of the respondents have done job oriented and diploma course for
staring a business.
most of the rural entrepreneurs have their own land to start or run their
business.
Due to land distribution issue in India ,most of the respondents have less
than 1 acre land.
Most of the entrepreneurs are age between 28-33 years old, followed by
the age group above 33 which is 23% of the total respondents.
respondents uses their land which are used for irrigation before it.
all the 60 respondents are the first gen entrepreneurs .
most entrepreneur do dairy activities followed by grocery store and
vegetable and fruit stall. rural entrepreneurs invest 50k and 1lakh to
starting a business.
most respondent annual income is 25k to 75k.
34
CONCLUSION
35
APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Name of the Respondent
2. Age
3. Gender
a. Male
b. Female
4. Marital Status
Married
Unmarried
5. Languages you know (Either to speak or write)
a. Hindi
b. English
6. Educational Qualification
Diploma
Primary
Degree
PG
Job oriented
No schooling
36
d. 5 acres and above
9. Whether the Agriculture land is
a. Irrigated
b. Non-irrigated
10. Are you a first generation entrepreneur?
a. Yes
b. No
11. Your Business is
a. Fertilizer / seeds
b. Farm equipment
c. PDS
d. Dairy activities
e. Grocery/General Stores
f. Garments Shop
g. Garage
h. Kitchen / Utensil ware
i. Pharmacy
j. Shoe store
37
k. Electronic goods
l. Commission agents
m. Sanitary goods
n. Tailor shop
o. Handicraft
p. Vegetable / fruit stall
q. Self-help group
r. Beauty Parlor
s. Goldsmith
t. Blacksmith
u. Carpenter
v. Cycle repair
w. Photographer
x. Sweet stall
y. Electric Shop
z. Stationary shop
aa. Flour mill
bb. Telephone booth / PCO
cc. Tea stall
dd. Hotel
ee. SSU
ff. Dish Operator
gg. Transportation
hh. Others
38
12. Since how many years you are running this business?
a. 1-3 years
b. 3-5 years
c. 5-7 years
d. 7 years and above
13. What is your initial investment for this business?
39
Above `175000/-
17.If yes, how many years of experience you have
a. 1-3 years
b. 3-5 years
c. 5-7 years
d. 7 and above years
18. Employment opportunities created by your business
1 person
2 person
3 person
4 person
5 person
6 and above persons
40
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