Developing Agripreneurs: Challenges for Extension

In view of shrinking land base and rampant unemployment, there is need to commercialise and diversify Indian Agriculture in such a way that one can generate more income per unit of area and time and create agro-based employment opportunities. For this to happen we need to convert agriculture into agri business Another issue is that with liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, the whole world has become like a local market where our farmers and their products will have to compete with multinationals in terms of quality and price. In this scenario, a shift in extension approach is demanded. Unlike crop production, developing entrepreneurship is not an activity but a chain of events and require functional linkages with various support systems. New commodities are perishable in nature and a farmer had to look for marketing channels unlike the established channels as in case of traditional crops of wheat, rice etc. This paper deals with the new roles of extension system in emerging agri-entrepreneurial environment based on the findings of a study conducted on rural youth of Delhi and adjoining areas.