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Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) For Food Processing Industry: An Overview
Prof. Prabal K Sen
Sep 2010
Sep 2010
Economic growth is largely the outcome of entrepreneurial initiative. Entrepreneurs exploit opportunities, convert ideas into viable business proposition, provide new products and services to the society by bringing together and combining various factors of production, and help alter life style of the people. Entrepreneurs are seen as creators of businesses, which in turn, produce income and output and generate employment. As Adam Smith wrote in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, it is the urge of an entrepreneur to make profit and accumulate capital, which “first prompted men to cultivate the ground, to build houses, to found cities and commonwealths and to invent all the sciences and arts which ennoble and embellish human life”.
In India the small enterprises occupy a particularly significant position in the country’s socio-economic space. They have significant contribution to the gross turn-over of the manufacturing sector, and high potential for exports. Small enterprises in India account for around 95 per cent of manufacturing units, nearly 40 per cent of industrial production and 40 per cent of exports. On account of their high labour intensity, these entities have positive income distribution implications. The sector provides employment to around 60 million persons, making it the second largest avenue of employment after agriculture.
These entities are known also for their overall flexibility in operation, making them capable of being set up at even small and remote centres, (about 54 % of micro and small enterprises in India are located in rural areas), thus facilitating achievement of the vision of a spatially balanced and sustainable development of the economy through geographical dispersion and decentralization of the production process.
That is about entrepreneurship in general. Enterprises in food processing sector have the potential to play a much more significant role in achieving the macroeconomic target variables of growth and social justice, inasmuch as these constitute a crucial link between agriculture and industry. Development of food processing helps to improve the value of agricultural produce, ensures remunerative price to farmers and augments the demand for a cross section of agricultural products, besides contributing to employment of manpower on a large scale.
India with an arable land of 184 million hectares is the third largest producer of foodgrains, working out to around 204 million tonnes, the highest producer of milk at 90 million tonnes per annum and the second largest producer of fruits & vegetables (150 mn tonnes). At 6.3 million tonnes of fish, 489 million poultry and 45,200 million eggs, India’s production of fish and poultry is the third largest in the world. Also, the country accounts for the largest livestock population, a wide range of raw materials and a massive consumer base of over one billion people with an ever increasing segment of the middle class, offers immense potential for development of the food processing industry. Rapid urbanization, an increasing number of women joining the country’s work force and a consequently changing life style are some of the other factors contributing to acceleration in the growth of the food processing industry in India. Emergence of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) as a catalytic agent has provided a further fillip to the growth of this sector.
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2 Comments >>
vikram singh
19 Apr 2012 (07:09:40)
food processing sector has great scope india, there are very few enterpreneurs in india, those already are into this business are big business houses, there is lot of scope still, and i feel EDP will help new upcoming enterpreneur to build there new business and become one of great income generators and employment providers.
naik zia-u-din
25 Apr 2011 (10:05:17)
It is likely wise to create jobs rather than becomming a job seeker. Enterpreneurs are really the treasure keys to the nation because they love to be independent & not the worms of their fate.
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